Armageddon in California

I have a message for all those religious groups that are pouring money into California to try and make a constitutional amendment to limit access to legal contracts -- and that is what marriage is, a legal contract first and foremost -- we're not going away. They are funding discrimination in the name of Jesus.

I am a suburban lesbian mom. I live in Massachusetts. Last I checked, the end of the world has not occurred. No plagues, no locusts, no hell fire and damnation. I am married to a woman I have spent the last 18 years of my life with. We have three kids. We pay taxes and support our community. Recognizing us with the same dignity and respect as everyone else has not changed the divorce rate amongst heterosexuals.

Nor has it lead to teaching sexuality in kindergarten.

Society has not crumbled. I know the right wing would like you to think it has but last I looked, it's all pretty much the same.

The irony about this is how I teach my kids tolerance for the people who would dissolve my marriage. Who would throw me into conversion therapies to make me "right." I tell them it's okay for other people to have a different opinion.

It's just not okay to take away someone else's rights because of those opinions.

We all need to learn a little more tolerance. We all need to stop for a moment and ask ourselves, deep down -- how will this truly change my life?

California is no different that Massachusetts. The world will not end. It's not Armageddon. And when people tried to take our rights away -- we fought back. We're fighting back in California. James Dobson and his crew can pound the airwaves with hateful messages, they can liken us to pedophiles, they can say that it'll lead to people marrying donkeys or their brothers or mothers. They can put small children's faces on the TV with their innocent eyes and say somehow our loving, committed relationships will lead to their demise.

I don't quite understand that but maybe that's because I'm raising three kids and I have seen no lack of morality in them. Except maybe when they finish the orange juice and put the empty carton back in the refrigerator.

The reality is, if we lose in California? We will continue to fight. We'll go to the courts, we'll draft legislation, and we'll keep fighting until we have equality. We'll raise money, they'll raise money. Millions wasted over something that doesn't cost a dime.

If you are tired of the argument, tired of the ridiculous warning that the world will end, please reach into your weary wallets and give one more time. Let's finish this so California can go on to tackle bigger issues like education, health Care, and the budget crisis.

It's not Armageddon. No one is going to take away anyone's right to preach the evils of homosexuality. No one is going to marry his or her dog. Four years we've had equality in Massachusetts.

Nothing has changed. My partner is my wife now. We have legal rights. People who hate me still hate me. They still get to preach every Sunday about how evil I am.

The only people who have anything to lose? Are all the families, like mine, across California and all of our straight allies who want their kids to grow up in a country that believes in equality -- fairness.

Comments

[smithshaw08]

It truly saddens me to think that in the year 2008, we can't just live & let live. I admit I have now become less tolerant of religion, because aspects of it have become less tolerant of me. I feel that prop 8 is a personal attack against my partner & myself. Even if it passes, you can't take away the love that my partner & I share for each other. And I will forgive those wish it to pass, for you know not what you do.

[carsntrucks]

Two wrongs make a right, I see.

And I agree, live and let live: let's get of law and prisons and let people just live and let live.

[RobinSeattle]

Well, I think that Mormons ought to be forbidden from marrying. First of all, they are members of a cult and most evangelical churches, like the one I belong to, see them as blasphemers. They have magic underwear? What is up with that? Thus, every Mormon child, and they tend to have a lot of them, is an insult to the Lord and that just cannot be allowed to continue.

Many Mormons even still believe in polygamy, which is just pure perversion and displays the depths of their lurid carnal desires. The day when Mormonism is wiped off the face of the earth will be a great day for my Lord Jesus Christ and all of His true followers.

A godly United States of America cannot tolerate this infection that weakens the Christian community with fairy tales that are just short of Scientology, which is even worse.

(Yes, this is satire).

[Paradym]

Careful... those rocks and glass houses thing...

[LeftRight]

Reread the last line, RobinSeattle says, "(Yes, this is satire)"

[gaydm]

The other odd thing about the "slippery slope" issue, is that the slope starts with heterosexuals marrying. They are at the top of the slope. A slope that has been created with public funds, that they now for some unknown reason think that they and no one else should have access to the top. Even though all of us equally built the slope. One solution would be to just go ahead and let all have access to the top. Or we could just tear down the slope and kick all off of it completely, and equally. Those are the choices. I personally think it would be the fairest and the most equitable thing to do would be to let all that wish to make that climb, have access. Since we invested so much in building the dang slope

[LeftRight]

You know, I'm so tired of the "slippery slope" argument. It would be funny if it weren't so stupid! The only slippery slope that I see is when you write into the state Constitution a rights removal! If CA passes Prop 8, this would make it easier for the same people to write in things like no interracial marriage, no free speech, no habeas corpus (I know, those last two are in the US Constitution, but it would be more likely than allowing Bob to marry his donkey Stella!) A Constitution is NO place to put bigotry!!!