"The label you give yourself cannot impact external forces that are not motivated by your own psychology or influenced by a third party's pre-existing consciousness of you. We are all presented with reasons to struggle which come from completely external forces; to pretend that one is not struggling is either arrogance or an admission of defeat. To admit that one is struggling is a sign and a source of strength." - Evan A. Baker

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The Right to Pursue Happiness

When voters passed Prop 8 in California, banning gay marriage just a few months after the state said Everybody can marry the ones they love, I, a native Californian could not believe it.

I could absolutely not believe that a state who welcomes ALL people (seriously, go to any of our wonderful major cities) could somehow say "Just kidding! Fooled you!"

Oh wait. The state didn't say that at all. Its people did.

If you live in California, you either have a family member, a co-worker, or a friend who is gay, if you're not gay yourself. And you know what's wrong with gays? Absolutely nothing.

Absolutely

Nothing.

But Prop 8 did several things: 1) Was more a religious issue than a political one, thus, I knew it was going to have to be overturned because of the law saying, "Yo, religion and government must never influence each other and must always be separated, cause Church will cut a State if you're not watching him. He's violent, ya'll!" 2) It created a group of people who were not allowed the same things as another group of people, which is Unequal, thus illegal. 3) Made the wonderful California people look bad.

We're Californians! We have great weather, beautiful landscapes, and an incredible people accepting everyone. Everyone. We didn't start off this way, back when gold was discovered, and even all the way up to World War 2 with our Japanese Internment camps, but we really tried to overcome all the negative karma in the 70s.

California basically said, Look - We like COOL people! With Radical ideas about love and tolerance and if you're going to come here, wear some flowers in your hair. We're here to love you. Come here to be loved.

And many people moved here because of that.

Federal Judge Vaughn Walker overturned Prop 8 today.

It's not over, of course, as the ruling will be appealed and will probably have to go to the Supreme Court but like I said, and have been saying, It was unconstitutional to begin with.

No matter what your religious upbringing, no matter how you feel about a group of people that are not mirror images of yourself, America shines from sea to sea because of its oath for Equality for All.

Everybody is equal, nobody is better than anyone else.

How can two people loving each other be wrong?

at

3 comments:

  1. Ophelia thinks hardAugust 4, 2010 at 3:54 PM

    I especially like that Judge Vaughn Walker said in his judgment that 'Proposition 8 fails to advance ANY RATIONAL BASIS in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license.' And that because it is unconstitutional [Due Process AND Equal Protection] her oredered a permanent entry of judgment. No application or enforcement of Prop8 at all and no possibility for voters to change this either. So, lets hope that the appeal, which you're right is sure to come, will fall on deaf ears at the Supreme Court. Fingers crossed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kristin QuinnAugust 4, 2010 at 9:05 PM

    Amen to that!! Wonderfully written.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PhoenixAugust 5, 2010 at 10:58 AM

    I especially like that Judge Vaughn Walker is a conservative who was appointed by Regan. Takes the air right out of the "he's just propagating his own gay agenda" argument that so many homophobes have carefully crafted.

    Proposition H8<love for all.

    ReplyDelete

Play nice.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)