Hypocrisy & The Morning After...
At this point i know alot of the gay community is feeling rather bittersweet today. With Prop 8 passing it's just another reminder that bigotry is alive and well in this country and in the state of California.
A friend of mine relayed this link to me this morning, which made the victory of Obama even more bittersweet.
SF Gate Article Concerning How Racial Minorities Voted on Prop 8.
I find it sad that the droves of black and latino voters who turned out to support Obama may have been one of the contributing factors to Prop 8 passing in California. 70% of black voters supported Prop 8, as did over 50% of the latino voters. Is anyone else finding this to be laughably hypocritical coming from two minorities who have for so long complained and fought against discrimination and inequality? It's utterly contemptible.
Now the big question is where do we go from here? This article shines some hope on the situation.
Article Concerning Action Being Taken Now That Prop 8 Has Passed.
But will it be enough? Will we instead shift gears and move to have the word "marriage" stricken from all legal documents? I, personally, am in favor of the that option. "Marriage" has been and always will be a notion directly related to religion. I for one would like religion taken out of this whole mess.
Civil Union
A civil union is a legally recognized union similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples with rights, benefits, and responsibilities similar (in some countries, identical) rights and responsibilities to opposite-sex civil marriage. In some jurisdictions, such as Quebec, New Zealand, and Uruguay civil unions are also open to opposite-sex couples.
Most civil-union countries recognize foreign unions if those are essentially equivalent to their own; for example, the United Kingdom, lists equivalent unions in Civil Partnership Act Schedule 20.
Many people are critical of civil unions because they say they represent separate status unequal to marriage ("marriage apartheid").[1][2] Others are critical because they say civil unions allow same-sex marriage by using a different name.
I understand the want and fight for the base principal of having what we've been denied by those who would condemn our relationships. But in the end, and i know this is a very heated topic, if the word "marriage" were abolished and replaced with "Civil Union", and everyone, same-sex or opposite-sex, were given the exact same rights in recognition of their relationship and commitment to their partner, would it matter? Are we looking to receive just and equal rights, or are we fighting for a word merely to throw it in the face of the religious institutions that have won hate-driven bigoted victories and held them over us just so we can say 'told you so'?
For me, this about rights, i refuse to give energy or attention to the hate and fear mongering that these religious institutions have used to scare people into their court. I'm tired of religion interferring in governmental process.
I just hope that blind indignant pride and outrage don't obscure peoples focus on the real goals our community is fighting for?
A friend of mine relayed this link to me this morning, which made the victory of Obama even more bittersweet.
SF Gate Article Concerning How Racial Minorities Voted on Prop 8.
I find it sad that the droves of black and latino voters who turned out to support Obama may have been one of the contributing factors to Prop 8 passing in California. 70% of black voters supported Prop 8, as did over 50% of the latino voters. Is anyone else finding this to be laughably hypocritical coming from two minorities who have for so long complained and fought against discrimination and inequality? It's utterly contemptible.
Now the big question is where do we go from here? This article shines some hope on the situation.
Article Concerning Action Being Taken Now That Prop 8 Has Passed.
But will it be enough? Will we instead shift gears and move to have the word "marriage" stricken from all legal documents? I, personally, am in favor of the that option. "Marriage" has been and always will be a notion directly related to religion. I for one would like religion taken out of this whole mess.
Civil Union
A civil union is a legally recognized union similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples with rights, benefits, and responsibilities similar (in some countries, identical) rights and responsibilities to opposite-sex civil marriage. In some jurisdictions, such as Quebec, New Zealand, and Uruguay civil unions are also open to opposite-sex couples.
Most civil-union countries recognize foreign unions if those are essentially equivalent to their own; for example, the United Kingdom, lists equivalent unions in Civil Partnership Act Schedule 20.
Many people are critical of civil unions because they say they represent separate status unequal to marriage ("marriage apartheid").[1][2] Others are critical because they say civil unions allow same-sex marriage by using a different name.
I understand the want and fight for the base principal of having what we've been denied by those who would condemn our relationships. But in the end, and i know this is a very heated topic, if the word "marriage" were abolished and replaced with "Civil Union", and everyone, same-sex or opposite-sex, were given the exact same rights in recognition of their relationship and commitment to their partner, would it matter? Are we looking to receive just and equal rights, or are we fighting for a word merely to throw it in the face of the religious institutions that have won hate-driven bigoted victories and held them over us just so we can say 'told you so'?
For me, this about rights, i refuse to give energy or attention to the hate and fear mongering that these religious institutions have used to scare people into their court. I'm tired of religion interferring in governmental process.
I just hope that blind indignant pride and outrage don't obscure peoples focus on the real goals our community is fighting for?