So, everyone knows that last week the California Supreme Court annuled 4,000 gay marriages. And my first reaction was that of a stream of vile curses against those people for being so fucking backwater and it being so bullshit that this is even an issue. With Liberty and Justice for All... (unless you're gay, or the wrong religion, or we don't like what country you're from, or the color of your skin, etc. etc. etc....)
Anyway, so I'm reading people's responses to the decision and many say that they agree with the ruling on a legal standpoint because the mayor overstepped his authority. Still though, this really ate at me. Tonight I realized exactly what it is that pisses me off about it. It's who paid the price.
As I posted elsewhere:
You know, it just came to me why I'm so mad about this....
Ok, so they overturned it because the mayor overstepped his authority. On a legal basis, I can understand this part of the decision.
But what gets me in all of this is that they should not have nullified the marriages of those 4,000 people. Punish the mayor. Prevent him from abusing his level of power in the future. But what they did was, in essence, PUNISH those who got their marriage license. THAT is the part I find so offensive in all of this and THAT is the part that boils my blood.
Those couples did not deserve that harsh judgment against them.
It's not fair to make them pay for the mayor's actions. In the end, THAT is the real injustice in this in my eyes. And such a pathetic ending to what could have been a beautiful start of forward-thinking change in this country.
See the thing that gets me is why it's ok to legislate hate and bigotry. Why are we allowing such bullshit to even be spoken, let alone passed as law? Why are we not only tolerent of hatred and discrimination as a nation who prides itself on freedom and liberty, but we push for that hatred? Why is it now ok to be a bigot? When did we revert back to that slaveowner mentality that all people are not created equal? When did it become acceptable to loathe our own citizens and make not only judgment but law against their freedom of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Just because we were once ignorant as a nation and permitted slavery doesn't mean we didn't learn from that error and change it. Just because we were once discriminatory and thought women inferior and unable to vote doesn't mean it was ever true or that it would always be that way. Just because we once couldn't get over our stupid bigotry over skin color doesn't mean that people of mixed race can't now marry and live and happy share their lives together. So why can't we see how idiotic we're being over gender? Aren't there much larger things to worry about then people who simply want what everyone else takes for granted? Can't we be happy for people who find love and a commited relationship? Can't we just let them live their life as we live ours?
This entire situation infuriates me. And things like the punishment to the 4,000 couples in California does so even more. Our bullshit president goes on tv and says how we're fighting a war to bring freedom to the oppressed Iraq. What about the oppression of our own citizens right here? He says that terrorists hate our liberty and yet he himself spews hatred and flat-out evil bigotry and denies that self-same liberty to those here in the US. He claims that America needs to move forward and secure its rights in the world, yet his backwater policies are the embarassment of the world and archaic in nature. When did this all become ok? When did words only apply to those we like, those who fit our mold, those who fall in a line? Doesn't this seem familier to anyone else? Anyone remember that little fellow named Hitler? The one who saw people in black and white terms of either acceptable or not? Isn't this exactly what we're doing as a country right now? Drawing the line between who is right and who is not?
It's sick. And there's a word for people who have such disgusting, narrow and limited views; it's Nazi. And sad to say, the state of America today is one that not only embraces, but pushes forward those very ideals and hatreds.
~ flowers bloom near Memory and Dream
at 8/18/2004 12:37:09 AM ~
~
