(no subject)
I can't sleep. Perhaps this entry will help me sleep. I promise an update on stuff going on in my life soon, but for now I feel like I have to talk about why I can't sleep.
I am thinking about prop. 8 in California. I don't know why it's hitting me this hard (harder than other states with anti-gay-marriage laws). Perhaps because I could see myself moving to CA one day. Perhaps because it hurts more to have something taken away when it actually was there for a while. I don't know. What I do know is that taking away rights is wrong. Voting to have the government declare other peoples' marriages unrecognized and invalid is wrong. Claiming that declaring some relationships "recognized and valid" and others "unrecognized and invalid" isn't discriminatory is just plain absurd. Claiming that any religious institution will be forced to perform any ceremony they don't want to or lose their tax-exempt status: dishonest and wrong--interfaith marriages, for example, are perfectly legal, but no religious institution is required to perform them.
I'm going to end this post with some requests, though I know many of the people reading this are already doing a lot of these things.
If you live in CA, please vote against prop 8.
If you live in CA or know anyone who does, please do your best to get the vote out against prop 8.
If you live in the U.S., and you have means, please donate to the no-on-prop-8 campaign, and urge your friends to do the same. http://www.noonprop8.com/
If you know anyone who might support prop 8, either in CA with their vote or anywhere financially, please do your best to convince them not to use their resources to hurt so many other people's lives.
Who you marry* should be a decision between you and your partner (and, if you happen to be religious, your religious authorities). Please help me keep the government out of it, and preserve marriage equality.
*This assumes a world where marriage is an institution regulated by the government, rather than by personal and religious systems. I think in a perfect world the government would only recognize civil unions (between anyone, ever) and it would be a matter of religion or personal choice or whatever whether each couple considered themselves married.
I am thinking about prop. 8 in California. I don't know why it's hitting me this hard (harder than other states with anti-gay-marriage laws). Perhaps because I could see myself moving to CA one day. Perhaps because it hurts more to have something taken away when it actually was there for a while. I don't know. What I do know is that taking away rights is wrong. Voting to have the government declare other peoples' marriages unrecognized and invalid is wrong. Claiming that declaring some relationships "recognized and valid" and others "unrecognized and invalid" isn't discriminatory is just plain absurd. Claiming that any religious institution will be forced to perform any ceremony they don't want to or lose their tax-exempt status: dishonest and wrong--interfaith marriages, for example, are perfectly legal, but no religious institution is required to perform them.
I'm going to end this post with some requests, though I know many of the people reading this are already doing a lot of these things.
If you live in CA, please vote against prop 8.
If you live in CA or know anyone who does, please do your best to get the vote out against prop 8.
If you live in the U.S., and you have means, please donate to the no-on-prop-8 campaign, and urge your friends to do the same. http://www.noonprop8.com/
If you know anyone who might support prop 8, either in CA with their vote or anywhere financially, please do your best to convince them not to use their resources to hurt so many other people's lives.
Who you marry* should be a decision between you and your partner (and, if you happen to be religious, your religious authorities). Please help me keep the government out of it, and preserve marriage equality.
*This assumes a world where marriage is an institution regulated by the government, rather than by personal and religious systems. I think in a perfect world the government would only recognize civil unions (between anyone, ever) and it would be a matter of religion or personal choice or whatever whether each couple considered themselves married.