I can has soapbox please?
This year, the judges of the California Supreme Court overturned the previous ban on gay marriages in this state. The decision for the ruling was based on the fact that there is no provision in the state constitution that backed up the original ruling.
Since this decision, people have been crawling out of the woodwork to complain.
"Activist judges pushing a pro-homosexual agenda!" They cry, while ignoring the fact that the judges in the California supreme court are Republican and decided that under the letter of the state constitution, the previous ruling was unlawful.
"Well if you're going to marry a guy, why not your dog or a 5 year old?!?" A disgusting argument, not just because of the logical fallacies, but of the implication that gay people are no better than pedophiles and those who practice bestiality. Let me explain to you why it will never be legal to marry your dog or a child. Putting aside the fact that all places with gay marriage have not (and will not) legalize either bestiality or pedophilia, one has to understand that there is no way on this green earth that it COULD be legalized. Animals can not consent, therefore there will never be a provision under the law that allows you to marry one. Children do not have the mental capacity to consent, therefore there will never be a provision under the law that allows adults to marry children. Gay marriage is no different than straight marriage, because it involves two consenting adults who love one another getting married. Of course this leads to my other complaint about this argument, which is the implication that gay people are less than human. Anyone who has this belief, I encourage you to open your eyes and understand the fact that you probably know a gay person, and they're no different than straight people.
"The majority of people hate this and think it's sick! Since when do we pass laws to appease the minority?!" If we lived by majority rule, interracial marriage would still be illegal, and most likely, prayer would still be in schools. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would be okay with that, but it's equally ridiculous to use the rule of the majority to oppress the minority.
They're going to teach gayness in schools!!!
I wish I was making this one up. I really, really do. But once again people just can't seem to realize that "gay" cannot be taught, any more than "straight" can. I know plenty of people who would sign up for that "How to be attracted to the opposite sex" class if it would actually work, because really, no gay person hasn't wondered how much easier and less painful their life would be if they were just "normal". This is, additionally, why nobody "chooses" to be gay. Then again, the people that are squacking about "gay being taught in schools" are the same ones who think that giving teenagers condoms will make them have sex, disregarding the fact that teenagers are GOING to have sex, no matter what the circumstances, and that giving them condoms would keep them from getting pregnant and contracting sexually transmitted diseases. Case in point, my 17 year old cousin (though she only turned 17 within the last few weeks) is 7 months pregnant. If she had been given condoms by the Michigan school system, this could have been avoided. It's not that I think children are some awful burden, but really, shouldn't she have finished high school first? She wants to be a nurse, how is she going to go through nursing school with an infant?
But I digress. Here's my real point.
Proposition 8 will be on the ballots this November. If Prop. 8 passes, the language of the California State Constitution will be changed to recognize that marriage is between "One Man and One Woman". In other words, the bigots win and all the couples who got married since the rightful overturning of the unlawful bill will have it ripped away from them. Our country needs to step forward away from it's puritanical mores, and get with the 21st century.
So, please, if you're in California, vote no on Prop. 8.
/end soapbox.
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