Chris Kluwe tells it like it is again
I love, LOVE that there are some professional athletes who have come out in support of marriage equality. Not all of them are insensitive pricks.
Out Of Bounds Blog No. 18 - Vote No
Author’s note: It’s often wise to take a moment to think things over, especially when making momentous decisions.
This is for all the people on the other side of the issue, those who want to vote “Yes” on Minnesota’s marriage amendment. Here is why you should vote “No.”
1) It’s an intrusion of government into personal life. One argument I see a lot from the Vote Yes perspective is that “government shouldn’t tell us how to define marriage.” I totally agree with you! Government should not be able to tell religions how to define marriage, but that goes both ways. If you vote Yes on the Minnesota Marriage Amendment, you’re using the government to enshrine one definition of marriage for everyone, no matter their beliefs. That’s the complete opposite of less government in your life. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to pass a constitutional amendment forever defining religion as “solely between a (insert faith here) and God,” especially if (insert faith here) isn’t the faith you believe in.
2) It’s an attempt to sidestep our political process. The way representative democracy works is that we vote for legislators, they pass laws, and then if we don’t like those laws, we vote for new legislators. To use the constitutional amendment process for a purely legislative matter runs counter to everything our system of government stands for (not to mention it reeks of trying to ram through policies while you have power and damn the consequences). If a judge or politician proposes a bill to make same-sex marriage legal, if you don’t like it, then vote them out (though you may want to consider why it is that a majority of lawmakers elected by a majority of the people are trying to pass a basic human rights issue, and then consider which side you’ll be on historically).
3) Voting Yes on this amendment does not protect your right to vote. I’m sure many of you have seen the television ads stating, “This is about protecting our right to vote.” Well, guess what. That’s a bald-faced lie. This isn’t about protecting your right to vote. It’s about scaring you into making a permanent change to the state constitution so you won’t have the right to vote on it again, nor your children, nor their children. If you want to protect your right to vote, vote No on the Marriage Amendment so you can keep the political process of this country safe from abuses of power such as this (as much as we’re able to these days).
4) Voting No on the amendment won’t change a single thing legally in the state. Same-sex marriage will still be illegal. Gay children will still be bullied in school, gay parents will still be unable to share each other’s health benefits or pass along property to a spouse, all the gays will still burn forever in your particular choice of religious hellfire, etcetera ad nauseam. If you don’t want gay people to get married, you can keep voting against it within the boundaries of the legitimate political system.
The only thing voting No will change is our fundamental regard for basic human decency. When you vote No, you tell a gay friend, relative, or child that while we may not have it right just yet, we’re working towards regarding all human beings as just that - human beings, free to live as themselves, with their own free will, not slaves to someone else’s ideas. When you vote No, you tell the demons of fear and hate that you won’t listen to their spiteful mewling, that you won’t enshrine discrimination into the bedrock of the state, that you won’t let our political process be co-opted by shortsighted fear mongerers who would rather have a quick gain at the polls now than worry about the long-term ramifications of spreading exclusion in a nation built on inclusion.
When you vote No, you tell the world, “I trust in our political system and do not support those who would corrupt it, who would increase government’s role in an arena it does not belong.”
When you vote No, you tell the world, “I do not stand for intolerance, for discrimination, for the unthinking maliciousness of assuming everyone has to be exactly like me forever.”
When you vote No, you tell the world, “I will treat others the way I want to be treated. With dignity, respect, and the belief that I am free to live my own life.”
Vote No on the Marriage Amendment in Minnesota.
Out Of Bounds Blog No. 18 - Vote No
Author’s note: It’s often wise to take a moment to think things over, especially when making momentous decisions.
This is for all the people on the other side of the issue, those who want to vote “Yes” on Minnesota’s marriage amendment. Here is why you should vote “No.”
1) It’s an intrusion of government into personal life. One argument I see a lot from the Vote Yes perspective is that “government shouldn’t tell us how to define marriage.” I totally agree with you! Government should not be able to tell religions how to define marriage, but that goes both ways. If you vote Yes on the Minnesota Marriage Amendment, you’re using the government to enshrine one definition of marriage for everyone, no matter their beliefs. That’s the complete opposite of less government in your life. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to pass a constitutional amendment forever defining religion as “solely between a (insert faith here) and God,” especially if (insert faith here) isn’t the faith you believe in.
2) It’s an attempt to sidestep our political process. The way representative democracy works is that we vote for legislators, they pass laws, and then if we don’t like those laws, we vote for new legislators. To use the constitutional amendment process for a purely legislative matter runs counter to everything our system of government stands for (not to mention it reeks of trying to ram through policies while you have power and damn the consequences). If a judge or politician proposes a bill to make same-sex marriage legal, if you don’t like it, then vote them out (though you may want to consider why it is that a majority of lawmakers elected by a majority of the people are trying to pass a basic human rights issue, and then consider which side you’ll be on historically).
3) Voting Yes on this amendment does not protect your right to vote. I’m sure many of you have seen the television ads stating, “This is about protecting our right to vote.” Well, guess what. That’s a bald-faced lie. This isn’t about protecting your right to vote. It’s about scaring you into making a permanent change to the state constitution so you won’t have the right to vote on it again, nor your children, nor their children. If you want to protect your right to vote, vote No on the Marriage Amendment so you can keep the political process of this country safe from abuses of power such as this (as much as we’re able to these days).
4) Voting No on the amendment won’t change a single thing legally in the state. Same-sex marriage will still be illegal. Gay children will still be bullied in school, gay parents will still be unable to share each other’s health benefits or pass along property to a spouse, all the gays will still burn forever in your particular choice of religious hellfire, etcetera ad nauseam. If you don’t want gay people to get married, you can keep voting against it within the boundaries of the legitimate political system.
The only thing voting No will change is our fundamental regard for basic human decency. When you vote No, you tell a gay friend, relative, or child that while we may not have it right just yet, we’re working towards regarding all human beings as just that - human beings, free to live as themselves, with their own free will, not slaves to someone else’s ideas. When you vote No, you tell the demons of fear and hate that you won’t listen to their spiteful mewling, that you won’t enshrine discrimination into the bedrock of the state, that you won’t let our political process be co-opted by shortsighted fear mongerers who would rather have a quick gain at the polls now than worry about the long-term ramifications of spreading exclusion in a nation built on inclusion.
When you vote No, you tell the world, “I trust in our political system and do not support those who would corrupt it, who would increase government’s role in an arena it does not belong.”
When you vote No, you tell the world, “I do not stand for intolerance, for discrimination, for the unthinking maliciousness of assuming everyone has to be exactly like me forever.”
When you vote No, you tell the world, “I will treat others the way I want to be treated. With dignity, respect, and the belief that I am free to live my own life.”
Vote No on the Marriage Amendment in Minnesota.