Proposition 8 (and those other states that banned gay marriage).
...and it was all going so well, too.
I don't...understand it. I mean, Canada has gay marriage. Britain has gay marriage (well, okay, "civil partnerships" which aren't technically 'marriage' but give identical rights to marriage). Nothing exploded. I don't know about Canada but in the UK it wasn't even a very big deal. It was just on the front of the papers one day, "By the way, we now have same-sex civil unions." One day, I went into work and the marital status boxes in the patient database said, "Married/Civil Partnership," and "Widowed/Surviving CP."
GUESS WHAT? NO ONE EXPLODED. My rather everything-o-phobic coworker rolled her eyes at how 'PC' everything was these days, and I rolled my eyes at her, but even that piece of homophobia was at least framed in the context of "why do they have to change the ticky boxes, I bet that took someone X hours and they could have used the money for better things," rather than "why do gay people have to ruin my life by getting married?" I mean, it comes from the same place deep down, but the difference in choice of expression shows a changing attitude as to what's acceptable to say or not.
This isn't an issue that is every likely to affect me because I'm already married and it's to a boy, and in general I like boys more, and because I don't live in the US and probably won't ever move there permanently (though living there for a while is still something I'd like to feel comfortable doing).
But that's just...so entirely beside the point. I don't want my hopeful political high taken away from me but I'm so...genuinely shocked at this result and it upsets me.
Because the part of Obama's speech that brought tears to my eyes wasn't the personal stuff about his family, or even the "this is your victory too," stuff. It was the stuff about the surviving government of the people, by the people, for the people. It was the idealistic crap about our choice to treat each other fairly, to be a democracy, to make sure everyone is heard.
Since when are we in the business of taking rights away from people?
Since fucking when?
It was unfair when the rights of one group to have the rights of the majority was even in question, but it's a whole new ballpark of fucked up when we actually start legislating to remove rights that people have already won.
And 'won' here is an important word because it's not like it was a legal loophole. An actual supreme court rendered a legal verdict. If it was a legal loophole where the letter of the law went against the spirit, then those guys ought to damn well have stopped it from going through at the time.
It's ridiculous, and I'm angry about it. I'm so angry about it, I'm even kind of angry with everyone else who's not angry about it. It's as insanely unfair as it would be to go back and legislate against mixed race marriages or take away women's rights to vote.
This isn't just something gay/bisexual people should care about. This is something everyone should care about. This diminishes all of us and it's ridiculous. And we should be furious.
And right after Obama made a fairly radical decision to include, "gay and straight," like it was an actual, legitimate choice in his acceptance speech too.
I don't...understand it. I mean, Canada has gay marriage. Britain has gay marriage (well, okay, "civil partnerships" which aren't technically 'marriage' but give identical rights to marriage). Nothing exploded. I don't know about Canada but in the UK it wasn't even a very big deal. It was just on the front of the papers one day, "By the way, we now have same-sex civil unions." One day, I went into work and the marital status boxes in the patient database said, "Married/Civil Partnership," and "Widowed/Surviving CP."
GUESS WHAT? NO ONE EXPLODED. My rather everything-o-phobic coworker rolled her eyes at how 'PC' everything was these days, and I rolled my eyes at her, but even that piece of homophobia was at least framed in the context of "why do they have to change the ticky boxes, I bet that took someone X hours and they could have used the money for better things," rather than "why do gay people have to ruin my life by getting married?" I mean, it comes from the same place deep down, but the difference in choice of expression shows a changing attitude as to what's acceptable to say or not.
This isn't an issue that is every likely to affect me because I'm already married and it's to a boy, and in general I like boys more, and because I don't live in the US and probably won't ever move there permanently (though living there for a while is still something I'd like to feel comfortable doing).
But that's just...so entirely beside the point. I don't want my hopeful political high taken away from me but I'm so...genuinely shocked at this result and it upsets me.
Because the part of Obama's speech that brought tears to my eyes wasn't the personal stuff about his family, or even the "this is your victory too," stuff. It was the stuff about the surviving government of the people, by the people, for the people. It was the idealistic crap about our choice to treat each other fairly, to be a democracy, to make sure everyone is heard.
Since when are we in the business of taking rights away from people?
Since fucking when?
It was unfair when the rights of one group to have the rights of the majority was even in question, but it's a whole new ballpark of fucked up when we actually start legislating to remove rights that people have already won.
And 'won' here is an important word because it's not like it was a legal loophole. An actual supreme court rendered a legal verdict. If it was a legal loophole where the letter of the law went against the spirit, then those guys ought to damn well have stopped it from going through at the time.
It's ridiculous, and I'm angry about it. I'm so angry about it, I'm even kind of angry with everyone else who's not angry about it. It's as insanely unfair as it would be to go back and legislate against mixed race marriages or take away women's rights to vote.
This isn't just something gay/bisexual people should care about. This is something everyone should care about. This diminishes all of us and it's ridiculous. And we should be furious.
And right after Obama made a fairly radical decision to include, "gay and straight," like it was an actual, legitimate choice in his acceptance speech too.