Some thoughts and meanderings on Proposition 8

[rhythmia]

I'm not expecting to change anyone's mind about things at this late date, I just have some thoughts that I want to articulate that have been floating around in my mind. I'm letting the outrage simmer on the backburner for a while, though it does power this essay/ramble

Comments

HUGE RAMBLE ON MARRIAGE ^^" PART 1

[flange5]

Hey, Rhythmia

HUGE RAMBLE ON MARRIAGE ^^" PART 2

[flange5]

2) The claim that to allow same-sex relationships the same legal status will somehow poison marriage as an institution, that it will devalue existing heterosexual relationships, is nonsensical if one acknowledges that (much as some people refuse to believe it, as they refuse to accept of acknowledge the separation of church and state) marriage as it is being discussed in legislative terms is a legal status. It's like saying (and someone probably did) that by giving African-Americans (or women) the vote made the status of being a citizen somehow less. In a social sense, perhaps that's true--it made the relative privilege of white men somewhat less by not considering African-Americans and women as second-hand citizens

[scififreak]

I'd love to comment on *everything* you've just written, but I'm literally running out the door and heading to Claremont. The one thing I could quickly answer was the question about when marriage became associated with romance: It was the Victorian era that began the idea of marriage and romance. They also gave us the idea of a "childhood" and other notions we take as being really old things, but are only about 150 years old at the most.