Melissa Etheridge On Prop 8: You Can Forget My Taxes, California

The Daily Beast:

Singer Melissa Etheridge rails against the passage of the gay-marriage ban in California--and she won't be paying the state a dime.

Okay. So Prop 8 passed. Alright, I get it. 51% of you think that I am a second class citizen. Alright then. So my wife, uh I mean, roommate? Girlfriend? Special lady friend? You are gonna have to help me here because I am not sure what to call her now. Anyways, she and I are not allowed the same right under the state constitution as any other citizen. Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books.

Okay, cool I don't mean to get too personal here but there is a lot I can do with the extra half a million dollars that I will be keeping instead of handing it over to the state of California. Oh, and I am sure Ellen will be a little excited to keep her bazillion bucks that she pays in taxes too. Wow, come to think of it, there are quite a few of us fortunate gay folks that will be having some extra cash this year. What recession? We're gay! I am sure there will be a little box on the tax forms now single, married, divorced, gay, check here if you are gay, yeah, that's not so bad. Of course all of the waiters and hairdressers and UPS workers and gym teachers and such, they won't have to pay their taxes either.

Read the whole story: The Daily Beast

Comments

[calirep99]

I cant help but laugh. Not at the issue but at those of you who dont live in California or any state where marriage for gays is legal.

Marriage between gays is only legal in a very few states. So to those of you not in one of those states, what are you doing to make it legal in your state? Probably not a damn thing.

[maggiee]

Hey Melissa, why not move to Boston? Full rights of citizenship can't be sneezed at. I think it would serve California right if every gay and lesbian citizen packed up and left the state. Gay marriage is recognized in New York. Fully supported by the governor. The only reason there isn't a specific ruling by the courts is because the right case hasn't made it's way there yet, but it will.

[fredfep]

Get a proposition on the ballot banning divorce by heterosexuals. I am sure the bible is against it. Get big money behind it and pass it, disban family court in it too.

[javaJimmy]

Don't stop at that -

Make adultery and infidelity a felony - punishable by 10 years in prison.

Eliminate alimony and child support (since divorce would be eliminated)

Prohibit the police from answering domestic violence calls (in most cases, they help the battered spouse leave the batterer, which leads to divorce, which would be eliminated...)

And lastly, require all women between the age of 18 and 43 to stay home to raise the children (and if you don't or can't have children, then God is punishing you and won't accept you into heaven).

How's that?

[readyforchange]

Melissa,

You go, girl!! I am so stunned by the passage of Prop 8 in California that I don't have the words to express my disappointment.

Grow up, America.

[IluvAmerica NOW]

Fabulous...thanks Ms. M. for showing the way. A state tax rebellion is a good idea. Just need to get enough people to do it to work.

Also, boycott. How about just buying food, gas, or meds for a year. Housing too. No new clothes, etc.

[Tamalpais]

The main reason that this lost is because so many in the black community voted that would not have if Obama was not on the ballot. I don't see how failing to pay taxes hurts the people responsible. Ulitmately she will lose.

[brokerthanu]

Blacks are 6.4% of he state's population and were 10% of the "yes" vote. Most of the counties that voted "yes" are in So CA or inland, and most of these are predominantly white. The fact remains that most of the people who voted for this are white. Please, NO SCAPEGOATING.

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

As a Texas ex-patriot, I was especially concerned that California's Proposition 8 passed, but I will still remain in the Golden State and hope that, eventually, the unenlightened masses (generally located in the central part of the state) will be outnumbered by those voters who are unthreatened by gays and welcme their having the same rights and benefits of the rest of us.

As far as Impala is concerned, his attitude is typical of many in the Central Valley ( setting for American Grafitti), where his mindset seems to be stuck. He voted for Proposition 8 because of progressive commentary during the last eight years of the Bush Reich, as if that the disastrous period should have passed without public notice. I only hope that Impala can look around him and witness the growing unemployent, energy crisis, bank failures, etc. etc that are the fruits of his beloved Administration.

[neverdiplomatic]

Melissa is absolutely right! Why should she or any other homosexual living in California be expected to pay taxes? If that state doesn't acknowledge that they have the same rights as everyone else then why should they have the same responsibilities? Hell, let's keep deciding who's worthy to be considered a full citizen! Let's slap a pink triangle on them and treat them as if they're somehow lacking.
Oh, wait... the SS already had THAT great idea in WWII.
I find it disgusting beyond words that people even had the option of voting on civil liberties; far more disgusting is the fact that there are people ignorant enough to believe that Melissa and Tammy shouldn't be entitled to the joys of marriage simply because of their sexual orientation.

[LisaMarieC]

Come on over to Massachusetts, Melissa!

[kellygrrrl]

Breakdown of Vote on 8:

Whites: 49% Yes / 51% No
Blacks: 70% Yes / 30% No
Latinos: 53% Yes / 47% No
Asians: 49% Yes / 51? No

We've got some work to do

[JoeKing]

Can someone clarify something for me that I'm too lazy to go to google and look up myself?

In California, do gay couples under 'domestic partnership' have the same legal benefits as het married couples do?

Also, I was reading the comments on the Daily Beast site this article links to and there was a long LONG comment by mpride221106 that laid out all this bibilical bullsh*t about how homosexuality is against god's law. Blah blah blah. And that gays are only that way because they are only into the gay sex.

What an unbelievebly ignorant person.

Being an atheist, that person's argument is void because I don't think there is any god that makes laws. (Keep in mind, I say this in jest) And secondly, if there was a god, gays would be a smart idea because well, gays are natures way of keeping human population in check, if you think about it. The thing causing every single problem in this world is that there are just too damn many people. Not enough resourses to feed and clothe all of those people. And the hets are the cause of that.

No, I have no kids and want no kids. Nor does my mate. And well, we're not allowed the legal benefits of the 'married' people either.

[BonzaiBoy]

Domestic partnerships provide "most" of the legal benefits of marriage, but not all.

[JoeKing]

Thank you. Well in that case, that's just not right. Not that I ever thought that repealing anyones rights were in the first place.

Don't know about you but having known plenty of gay folks throughout my life, I have no doubt that it is genetic. So, denying gays the legal benefits of marriage that hets get is no different than denying someone the right to vote because they're black.

But, apparently we still live in a country chock full of bigots.

[JWoode]

Inheritance rights No
Rights of survivorship No
Hospital visitation No
Medial decisions for ill partner No
Joint federal taxes No
Child custody in the case of death No

Gay couples can be together for decades and lose everything when one dies.
It takes complex contracts between partners to achieve a marginal degree of stability.

[tcfodor]

Even if a domestic partnership provided all of the same legal benefits as marriage, I think it would still be an insult. It sounds a lot to me like all the 'separate but equal' BS from the Jim Crow days.

[Octoberluna]

That is exactly the stance I would take too!

I am so sorry that the lack of education in grammar classes has played any small part in such a terrible stripping away of your rights. I am even sorrier that other people were just too hateful and frightened of love.

Write some great stuff about the subject!

[SwingingFromCenter]

I only WISH I had some sort of way of protesting the ignorance that is the populace that voted Prop 8...and I'm not even part of that subculture.

[Snwbnny9]

Small minded bi.gots always give one last push before a major paradigm shift happens. I'm sure the CA Supreme Court will strike it down as unconstitutional. They already said not allowing gay marriage was discriminatory. You cannot change the Constitution to allow discrimination. The only thing morm ons have done is waste their money. This law will not stand. Just like Prop 187 didn't stand.

[saxmaniac]

You're most welcome here in the People's Republic of Massachusetts, where, excpect for February and early March the weather is better than in San Francisco all year. And we sure could use that tax money! See you in P-Town!

[joebiz]

As a heterosexual male, I proudly voted NO on Prop 8. Here are my reasons:

*Legitimizing disrimination with my tax dollars. It's so unAmerican to have one group not receive full societal rights that others enjoy.

*The gay community should not have to pay taxes for services that benefit heterosexual community unless gays can also have the same rights.

Why do gays pay taxes so that heterosexual can use Family Courts in California? Gays don't get the full participation of these public services. The huge divorce industrial complex, with its tax payer funded public judges, public child advocacy agencies, counseling, foster care is designed primarily for the heterosexual couple(s). Why should tax dollars go to fund public schools, if gays are not allowed to marry and raise children in loving homes and send them to public schools?

*Why isn't there a greater separation between church and state in California? We should build up that wall of separation between relic religious intolerance and modern society. If the religious right continues to meddle in political issues, they should have their tax exempt status revoked.

I still believe in the fairness of California but not in the mob mentality of the uninformed.

[DMcMillan]

here here