Bloody hell, Maine.
You know, I tried to get over this yesterday. I'm not really sure why Maine's decision to repeal a law allowing gay marriage has affected me so greatly. I'm not gay and I've never even been to Maine. So this doesn't affect me directly. I wasn't as bummed out when California bombed the Prop 8 thing. I mean I was disappointed, sure. But upon reading the news this yesterday, I wanted to cry and break things. Maybe because the promise of equality had already been established by Maine's government through law and a douchey 53% of voters shattered that promise. Maybe because, while this doesn't have any bearing on my life, it greatly affects the lives of people I hold close to my heart.
Here is what I do understand, because I really really REALLY try to look at the opposing side of this. I can see the point of same sex marriages not being allowed from a religious standpoint. I totally get that if you are a Southern Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, etc. that you are against the RELIGIOUS CEREMONY of marriage between Frank and Mark. I would never ask any religion to change its views on a sacrament that has been in its traditions for centuries. I honestly don't think anyone (maybe a few) is asking such a thing.
I'm not speaking of marriage in the religious sense of the word here. According to my own church, the Catholic Church (yes, liberal Catholics exist), Ian and I aren't married in the eyes of God. We were married by a Justice of the Peace in a park in Oregon. But as far as society is concerned, we are a union with all the benefits that come with it. We were not married by a religious authority and yet our marriage is just as valid as any other marriage. I'm talking about marriage in the LEGAL sense, here.
Here is what I don't understand. Society's hatred and intolerance of gay people. I think the reason that I'm having such a hard time is that 53% of the voters in Maine just told an entire group of people "Hey, guess what. YOU are lesser human beings than we are." The majority of people think that the love between a man and a man or a woman and a woman is an inferior love to the love they share with their opposite sex spouse.
An entire group of people isn't entitled to fully mesh lives with someone just because they have matching underwear equipment. He has a penis and so does he, therefore he isn't entitled to insurance coverage, life insurance benefits, social security payouts in the event of an untimely death, cosigning adoption papers with his partner, visiting his ill loved one in the hospital, making hard decisions with regard to medical treatment should his loved one be unable to consent. Take your pick, it's all happened. Nevermind that they've been together for 12 years but a married couple of 1 week is legally entitled to all that and more. Nevermind that the bond to this person of the same sex is just as real and deep as that of the breeders next door. Love is love. Nevermind that if his name is not on the adoption papers,
the children he has helped his partner raise may also be denied these common "amenities". Woman, man, straight or gay, humans all have emotions and the range of what we feel in our hearts and in our minds is the same no matter who you are.
We all feel joy, we all feel love, we all feel pain, we all feel loss. And to deny any of the things above to a couple because of sexual orientation is to say, your feelings are not justified, they aren't as real as mine because
I feel they are wrong. Your feelings don't matter. MY feelings about your life matter more than YOUR feelings about your life. This notion sickens me.
I cannot wrap my brain around
why this is even an issue.
How is a legal union between a same sex couple affecting you? Why is it any of your concern? What is the threat? Surely you know by now that gay isn't a virus.
Gays will undermine the sanctity of marriage. REALLY? The statistics show that around half of all marriages end in divorce. I'd be curious to know how many anti-gay marriage supporters are divorced. I think straight people are doing a pretty good job of fucking up the sanctity of marriage on their own. Especially of note: the lawmakers who support such anti-gay marriage laws who can't even keep their schlongs in their own wives. To support this stance means you must support making divorce illegal too, right?
Gay couples and gay sex goes against nature. So is a blow job from your wife. So is a $5 handjob from a hooker. So is whacking off. So is your beloved vibrator. If you get down to the true meaning and purpose of sex, it is to breed. So sex on the pill is unnatural. Sex with a condom also disqualifies you. If you have engaged in any of the following, you my friend, are committing a crime against nature. If you have committed any of these, you are just as bad as those nasty queers. If you haven't committed any of the following, well then, you are probably Michelle Duggar.
Gay people are detrimental to the model of American families. And to take this further....gay people can't have children and therefore shouldn't have families. Have you LOOKED at the modern American family? Single families. Step families. Families with half siblings...and combinations of all of the above. If people who cannot have children should not be allowed to marry, then why not castaway all infertile people to an island somewhere? No marriage for you. Deny the marriages of people who find love later in life, after the childbearing years are gone. Sorry Ethel, the crazy cat lady line is over there. This line is for the young and fertile only.
The notion that being gay is a choice baffles me. Choosing a lifetime of being picked on and bullied. Being labeled a social outcast. Having it drilled into your head that you are immoral. Losing family members, sometimes your own mother or father, after you come out. Being denied equality. Having to endure and protect yourself from hate, both verbal and physical. Fighting everyday for the sense of normalcy that a heterosexual person takes for granted. Yup. People CHOOSE that. Where do I get on that guest list because that sounds like one hell of a party. Come on, get your head out of your ass. Why on Earth would someone choose to live like that?
Even though the majority (though a slim majority it seems) still believes that gay people are inferior citizens who don't deserve the same rights to nondiscrimination that they themselves bask in on a daily basis, I know they are wrong. The gay people know the majority is wrong. If anything, there is a certain aspect of superiority that I feel gay people have aside from the stereotypical fashion sense of the gay male and the mad softball skills of a lesbian. There is superiority in the strength of facing daily prejudices head on. There is superiority in keeping one's chin held high after defeat. There is superiority in the sense of perseverance in the face of adversity. There is no backing down. There is no complacency with the status quo. If there is anything I learned in
my years of hanging at a drag bar, these bitches can FIGHT....and this fight is not over. Not even close.
Posts
