I fart Maine
I was farting in the shower last night and noticed that it smelled like low tide. Maybe if Maine were cool enough to have same-sex marriage I would be able to fart freakin' coffee and doughnuts. (I realize that other states have coastline, coffee, and doughnuts, but not in the way that Maine does. Trust me.)
I am disappointed but not at all surprised that gay marriage was voted down in Maine this week. If it couldn't get past a vote in any other state, I was not really expecting Maine to be any different. However, I didn't have much of an emotional reaction until I got linked to a blog post cracking a joke about how lobster should be outlawed too. This is lame overall since the Leviticus counterargument is already overdone. However, I'm also saddened and offended to see someone slinging insults at my home state from behind a computer screen. It's easy to take pot shots at a place when many more people think of it as a vacation destination than as Home. She probably hasn't ever been there if the only thing she knows about Maine is lobster. Mainers really are not that religious and I doubt that most people who voted yes on 1 would cite Leviticus as their top reason.
If opinion is almost an even split right now in many states, then in five or so more years when more pro-gay people are old enough to vote and more anti-gay people are dead of old age, we'll be able to start giving people the rights they deserve. I know that doesn't make it okay, because that's five or so more years during which people can't be with their loved one in the hospital, etc. I really want to get married some day, and if there were a law saying that no one with a widow's peak was allowed to marry anyone to whom they were romantically attracted, I would be really depressed.
I am disappointed that the US as a whole is not ready to accept people who are born different. But, BUT, rural xenophobic Maine has shown itself to be just as progressive as urban hippie California, and that is something to be proud of. When same-sex marriage can either pass a vote or when the government realizes that it shouldn't be voted on in the first place, Maine will get to be ahead of most of the country in terms of civil rights. I think I have said before how much homophobia I saw growing up, and now the majority in my home county support same-sex marriage. It's nice to know that if I can ever move back, the politics of the place won't be stuck where they were in the 90's.
SO. If you're going to say things about Mainers being backwards and bigoted, please include Californians in your insult, and/or take a drive up to The County and deliver your insult to some Mainers in person.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm enough of a Californian now that I'm on a caffeine crash after the chai latte that I had today, and am also craving some self-serve frozen yogurt with active cultures.
Edit: After my fro-yo, I was able to put my thoughts a little more articulately into a comment on the lobster post:
"If you're going to sling insults at Maine for how the vote turned out, would you please include California as well? And would you please note that no state yet has approved same-sex marriage by a majority vote? Also, feel free to drive to Maine and personally deliver this blog post to the people who live there.
I am a native Mainer currently living in California, and am strongly in support of same-sex marriage. It's hard enough to see another civil rights loss in this country, but what's worse is seeing people of my own political persuasion use it as an excuse to put down my home state.
Maine is a rural, closed-off place. I'm actually really proud that it has become progressive enough for nearly 50% of the population to support same-sex marriage.
And apparently you've never been there if you think Mainers are religious. I suspect it's more of a distrust of anything associated with urban living."
I am disappointed but not at all surprised that gay marriage was voted down in Maine this week. If it couldn't get past a vote in any other state, I was not really expecting Maine to be any different. However, I didn't have much of an emotional reaction until I got linked to a blog post cracking a joke about how lobster should be outlawed too. This is lame overall since the Leviticus counterargument is already overdone. However, I'm also saddened and offended to see someone slinging insults at my home state from behind a computer screen. It's easy to take pot shots at a place when many more people think of it as a vacation destination than as Home. She probably hasn't ever been there if the only thing she knows about Maine is lobster. Mainers really are not that religious and I doubt that most people who voted yes on 1 would cite Leviticus as their top reason.
If opinion is almost an even split right now in many states, then in five or so more years when more pro-gay people are old enough to vote and more anti-gay people are dead of old age, we'll be able to start giving people the rights they deserve. I know that doesn't make it okay, because that's five or so more years during which people can't be with their loved one in the hospital, etc. I really want to get married some day, and if there were a law saying that no one with a widow's peak was allowed to marry anyone to whom they were romantically attracted, I would be really depressed.
I am disappointed that the US as a whole is not ready to accept people who are born different. But, BUT, rural xenophobic Maine has shown itself to be just as progressive as urban hippie California, and that is something to be proud of. When same-sex marriage can either pass a vote or when the government realizes that it shouldn't be voted on in the first place, Maine will get to be ahead of most of the country in terms of civil rights. I think I have said before how much homophobia I saw growing up, and now the majority in my home county support same-sex marriage. It's nice to know that if I can ever move back, the politics of the place won't be stuck where they were in the 90's.
SO. If you're going to say things about Mainers being backwards and bigoted, please include Californians in your insult, and/or take a drive up to The County and deliver your insult to some Mainers in person.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm enough of a Californian now that I'm on a caffeine crash after the chai latte that I had today, and am also craving some self-serve frozen yogurt with active cultures.
Edit: After my fro-yo, I was able to put my thoughts a little more articulately into a comment on the lobster post:
"If you're going to sling insults at Maine for how the vote turned out, would you please include California as well? And would you please note that no state yet has approved same-sex marriage by a majority vote? Also, feel free to drive to Maine and personally deliver this blog post to the people who live there.
I am a native Mainer currently living in California, and am strongly in support of same-sex marriage. It's hard enough to see another civil rights loss in this country, but what's worse is seeing people of my own political persuasion use it as an excuse to put down my home state.
Maine is a rural, closed-off place. I'm actually really proud that it has become progressive enough for nearly 50% of the population to support same-sex marriage.
And apparently you've never been there if you think Mainers are religious. I suspect it's more of a distrust of anything associated with urban living."