California is too Great for Hate

Yes folks, this post will be known as The One Where She Got Political. I didn’t intend to “go there” - it was not in the plan when I started this blog but...I’m going there.
For those of you who’ve not yet heard about the incredibly controversial proposition on the ballot for California, it’s Prop 8 which seeks to not only overturn the California Supreme Court ruling which made same-gender marriage legal but also to essentially write discrimination into the constitution by preventing it from ever being legal again. Frankly it’s as ridiculous as turning back time and taking away the right to vote for a gender or a race.

Here’s my take on this situation folks; even if you feel that a same-gender relationship and even a same-gender marriage is wrong it does not make it okay to impose your belief system on others by denying those folks rights. There are people who think that pre-marital relations are wrong. Does telling people “not to” or going so far as creating a law against it stop those people from the activity? Do you think that preventing a legal marriage for a same-gender couple is going to cause those couples to break up? To not live together? To go away? NO! What does it “solve” to tell Linda & Diane or Tom & Dave, “Hey, we think your relationship is wrong, you love the wrong person, therefore we're making certain you can’t have a marriage - a “legal” marriage - ever. So there! Take that!” Does it really make your marriage somehow better to do that? Are Carol and Bob going to have a stronger marriage because they’ve stood their ground in asserting that their marriage, their “traditional” marriage is better because they are opposite genders?

The “Protect Marriage” phrase/movement is ludicrous. It “protects” nothing, and certainly not marriage- it simply denies it for one group. I find it very disturbing that the groups promoting this proposition are using scare tactics filled with false information to further their hateful agenda. Yes, I said hateful, there is simply no other word to describe it. When someone decides that their way of life is somehow better than someone else’s and then seeks to deny the other person’s rights, well, that’s just plain mean, there is no getting around it. It is appalling to think of the money spent to promote this thing--money that could have gone to help those in need, to do some real good for folks who need it, but instead it’s being used to prevent a group of people from having what should be a basic human right. If that isn’t a sad commentary on society I don’t know what is. When people care more about harming one group that helping another I think we all need to more carefully examine our values.

Numerous other “fears” for the so-called consequences of not having Proposition 8 pass have been talked about, many of which are based on falsehoods. I won’t go into all of that here as others have already said it far better than I could but I do want to point out one of these: “Well, if Proposition 8 doesn’t pass then the schools will be able to teach our kids that a same gender marriage is “just as good” as a traditional marriage!” A Sacramento Superior Court judge has already ruled that this claim by the proponents of Prop 8 is “false and misleading” and the “case” they cited was from Massachusetts. Since they knew what California law said they used another state to mislead the voters. There is already a law in place that prohibits the California school system from teaching anything regarding Family Life to your child that you do not want them to hear and learn. So, when it comes time for the kids to learn about Family Life you have the choice to opt them out of the classroom if it’s important to you that they not hear this or anything else relating to the Family Life curriculum. But perhaps you could take a look at this from another perspective. For just a moment, imagine with me if you will that your little Brandon or Caitlin learns [with your consent, of course] in school that there is a such a thing as homosexuality (because it does in fact exist whether you agree with it or not) and that while some people wish to share their life with a partner of the opposite gender others wish to share their life with a partner of the same gender. Don’t you think it’s possible that if we started teaching this basic understanding from an early age that it might just prevent folks who are gay and lesbian from being at best ostracized and at worst harmed and possibly even losing their lives? Don’t you think it’s possible that less misunderstanding and less hate might just happen to equal less violence in the world? Isn’t that something that we should all be looking at quite seriously and doing whatever we can to work towards? I certainly think so. I hope enough other Californians do too.

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