Thursday, May 28, 2009

Gay Marriage, Popular Votes, and Progress...

So - what do you think? Did Obama announce Sotamayor ON THE EXACT DAY of the CA supreme CT decision, to obscure it from 100% headline status?? I mean - -of course it' s huge news but certainly quiet dampened by the SCOTUS news...

Of course--I'm fine with gays having all the same rights as any other adult american citizen. That's consistent with the US constitution. Now let's move on.

To the RIGHT I say: The 18,000 marriages in CA (and many elsewhere) prove to bigots that THE EMPIRE WON'T CRUMBLE because gays wanna marry.

To the LEFT I say: Maybe, just maybe there's a discussion to be made about the various religious groups having the corner on the word "marriage". Just maybe> I dunno, i;'m just saying, let;s bounce that around. Because I still can't understand fully why Civil Unions are any different, except for..the semantics of it all.


Having said that -- I WISH gays and the protesting left would ADMIT and UNDERSTAND:

Prop 8 passed in Nov 2008...DUE TO A MAJORITY OF THE CA CITIZENS VOTING! Notice how no one mentions that too much - except when saying "We can't wait till 2010 to get it on the ballot again".

And -- just to play that thought out further - imagine if -- as many on the left would CHEER for -- if persons here illegally, were allowed to vote -- guess what - ?? They are overwhelming hispanic, CHRISTIAN/CATHOLIC, and VERY pro-life and for "traditional marriage". The prop would have passed by EVEN more of a margin. Wouldn't that have been even more ironic?

OK -- so now what if it doesn't pass in 2010? Will activists move on and focus on CIVIL UNION instead?? Or what?

People on all sides of the political spectrum need to realize-- sometimes the POPULAR VOTE OF THE PEOPLE will result in stuff you don't like!!

For some idiot/hypocrite right-winger drug crusader it might be the CA Prop. that allowed medical marijuana. A lot of those types (including cokehead GW Bush) screamed and yelled when the CITIZENS OF CALIFORNIA voted themselves medical marijuana. Yet -- THESE SAME RIGHT WINGERS go on and on about STATE's RIGHTs...which is precisely what that illustrated!!

I bet LOTS of gay potheads in SF are FINE with THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE on the med. mari. vote. Yet now....suddenly the exact same process is to be protested!! Can someone explain this to me?

Or how about the OR and WA resolutions..PASSED BY THE VOTERS to allow Dr.-assisted suicide. Again - it's clear my fellow left wingers in CA, WA, OR and elsewhere were as ECSTATIC as I was, seeing STATE'S RIGHTS upheld, and the rights of terminally ill people having THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE any treatment or ending they want. Awesome!

But again -- SAME VOTING PROCESS passed those laws- what would the left say if some right wing christian nutbags freaked out on each of those 100% legal Props. with hand-wringing, massive marches and legal challenges AGAINST THE PEOPLE and their LEGAL VOTE??

I hope this makes sense. I am for full gay rights -- but DO IT BY THE BOOK.

Gays compare this fight to that of blacks all the time. (I'm black, hetero and VERY left wing, libertarian, this week I call it "common sense socialist").

People need to realize -- that Harvey Milk was NATIONAL HEADLINES as a "openly gay elected city official" a mere 31 years ago!! Wow!! So -- it's been INCREDIBLE progress since then!! Gay rights on every level, the two big struggles are the military and marriage DADT and DOMA.

Well --black people have fought for far more than that - and we realize stuff takes time. It sucks, it's often hellish. Shirley Chisholm ran for Prez in what, 1972....it took 36 more years for a black person to win.

And this week again -- a white woman (in FL) calls in a FAKE 911 call..saying "Help!!! Two black men carjacked my daughter and I !! Help!! save us!! they locked us in a trunk"

How much did you see that reported?

Remember Susan Smith tried that?? - when she drowned her two kids?? She called the police and blamed...a black man. For DAYS young black men in her area were TERRORIZED by the cops, all too happy to have an excuse!

Remember Charles Stuart tried that? - when he killed his wife brutally (as most killings are...) and called 911 "some black guy carjacked us and shot my preggers wife"!

Anyway - I digress. I say to gays fighting for their rights -- which I am totally in solidarity with --Settle in, keep fighting, make your case district by district. Convince the ignorant. Stop crying, though -- and realize that everything is relative, i ponder that every day when I look at my rights as a black man, as someone with critical views of the gov't etc.

There's been mind-blowing progress since Harvey Milk's time, when cops were just strolling into gay bars when they felt like it, bloodying a few heads and moving on unchecked. It's gonna keep moving - but the most important thing in all this - IMHO - is that people from the whole political specturm HAVE to support the legal process.... if they want to be able to use that process to advance THEIR causes at some point.