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

[VoteforPedro]

This will lead to an exodus from San Francisco and San Diego to Biloxi and Little Ark.

[Snwbnny9]

What?
Why would gay people move to Mississippi and Arkansas?
Why not New England where people are tolerant of differences?

[cgrier61]

Come back to Boston! You went to college here and your marriage is valid here. Do you still have friends in town?

[DonnieInNC]

I totally agree with Melissa's stance on this issue. Think of all the money that you stand to lose if all the people that Prop 8 effect decide to do the same? California is already facing hard times, was it really smart of you to vote on a bill that does nothing but DIVIDE us?

It's a shame that in a time where we just elected a man who can bring this country together...that we are not more INCLUSIVE and ACCEPTING.

[lummie]

Great idea! Much like people who have staunch Pro-life stances, they fail to look at any other issue other than their own interests. No as long as they have their right heard, then everything else is irrelevant. Here you have people who are Americans, only want the same rights that every other American is entitled to and yet its left to the public to make a decision on something that is going to be skewered from the beginning.

C'mon people, if your not going to give gay people marriage, at least give them all the rights you are privileged to have.

[Bitsko]

Let's hope Ms. Etheridge, who was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, doesn't end up back there.

[tryharder2think]

Um what's your point there?

If you are thinking about the prison - that was in Fort Leavenworth, Texas and it was a military prison.

[PDinCA]

Try harder to research.

[K.J. Dwyer - Huffpost Blogger]

I think this is a brilliant idea. We should hit them where they'll pay some attention, in their purses.

I also think that there should be an initiative to ban clergy from performing legal weddings. If someone wants to have a religious ceremony, that's fine -- I have no problem with that -- but the only marriage that should be recognized by the state is the one performed by a judge at the courthouse.

If everyone was made to participate in a civil ceremony, we might be able to separate the religious nonsense from this issue.

In Argentina, where I live, this is how marriage is conducted. No matter who you are, how much money you have or what religion you practice, you have to stand before a judge at the Registro Civil (Civil Registry) to get married. If you then choose to have a religious ceremony, that's your choice, but the only marriage recognized by the state is the one performed at the Registro Civil.

When people get divorced, do they go to their priest, minister or rabbi? No, they hire lawyers and they go to court. Why? BECAUSE MARRIAGE IS FIRST AND LAST A CIVIL INSTITUTION.

To anyone who thinks otherwise, grow up and get over it already.

[firelord5000]

Ever heard of jail? IRS always gets their money, ask Snipes.

[NRDavis]

Yes, I have heard of jail. Being a second-class citizen is just like being in jail. Sometimes civil disobedience means suffering. Rosa Parks went to jail. So did MLK. They're part of the reason Obama is president-elect. The American revolutionaries broke the law. That's why this country exists. When a law is immoral, moral people have a duty to break it. So said Gandhi, King, Thoreau, and many others. What Hitler did was legal. What the freedom fighters of Hungary did was illegal. Which was the moral choice? Certainly not Hitler's.

Withholding taxes would be an act of civil disobedience in defiance of an immoral law. Thus, not paying taxes in this case is the ONLY right thing to do if we refuse to finance our own diminishment by a bigoted populace.

Therefore... NO TAXATION WITHOUT EQUALITY!

[neverdiplomatic]

You're absolutely right! Marriage IS civil institution and should be treated as such and to have the clergy sticking their noses into it just makes no sense whatsoever.

[sugarmagnolia]

Excellent point! Gay Californians should move to Massachussets and pay your taxes there instead.

[Bitsko]

Just don't ruin the Berkshires! There's enough folks living there already.

[tryharder2think]

Gads Bitsko - WTF are you saying? I think you must be daft?