Winners and Losers
Short-term losers in the passing of Proposition 8:
1. Queer people who now will be discriminated against under the law. And don't give me that "domestic partnership" bullshit. Didn't we decide a half a century ago that separate is not equal?
2. Children of queer people whose parents' legal status is now in question. The stability of their families is in peril.
Long-term losers in the passing of Proposition 8:
1. Religion. The inevitable backlash against a faith that wrote their own twisted values into our constitution will keep people from gravitating towards a spiritual life. I mean, myself excluded, who would want to be called a Christian when something like 75% of "Christians" voted to discrimiate against what they see as the "other?" Have these people even listened to Jesus?
2. Marriage. If the Right continues to define marriage as a religiously acceptable institution, more and more people will want nothing to do with it.
Eventually, people will not stand to see our beloved constitution have discrimination written into it. Eventually, we will not stand for the law giving more rights to some people than others. And we will stop pretending that a 15 year old child of straight people suffers more sitting through a hypothetical sex ed class for 50 minutes than a child of gay people does when his parents' legal and societal connection is questioned at the most critical times of all (i.e. ER visits, etc.).
I know there are so many reasons to rejoice over the election--trust me; I am happy about Barack. But I am utterly heartbroken that so many of my neighbors think so badly of queer people that they would vote to discriminate against them. I can't even picture my sister and SIL and their two beautiful twins right now without crying. I don't even know how to call them or what to say.
Going to the No on 8 March in San Diego this weekend helped my spirits. But when I look around my suburban cul-de-sac and recall that 5 out of the 7 houses here voted yes, I feel disheartened and frustrated. I should have done more.
1. Queer people who now will be discriminated against under the law. And don't give me that "domestic partnership" bullshit. Didn't we decide a half a century ago that separate is not equal?
2. Children of queer people whose parents' legal status is now in question. The stability of their families is in peril.
Long-term losers in the passing of Proposition 8:
1. Religion. The inevitable backlash against a faith that wrote their own twisted values into our constitution will keep people from gravitating towards a spiritual life. I mean, myself excluded, who would want to be called a Christian when something like 75% of "Christians" voted to discrimiate against what they see as the "other?" Have these people even listened to Jesus?
2. Marriage. If the Right continues to define marriage as a religiously acceptable institution, more and more people will want nothing to do with it.
Eventually, people will not stand to see our beloved constitution have discrimination written into it. Eventually, we will not stand for the law giving more rights to some people than others. And we will stop pretending that a 15 year old child of straight people suffers more sitting through a hypothetical sex ed class for 50 minutes than a child of gay people does when his parents' legal and societal connection is questioned at the most critical times of all (i.e. ER visits, etc.).
I know there are so many reasons to rejoice over the election--trust me; I am happy about Barack. But I am utterly heartbroken that so many of my neighbors think so badly of queer people that they would vote to discriminate against them. I can't even picture my sister and SIL and their two beautiful twins right now without crying. I don't even know how to call them or what to say.
Going to the No on 8 March in San Diego this weekend helped my spirits. But when I look around my suburban cul-de-sac and recall that 5 out of the 7 houses here voted yes, I feel disheartened and frustrated. I should have done more.
Labels: queer issues
posted by Sarah at 6:54 PM
1 Comments:
We all could have done more, but you did a lot. And you can keep working...we all have to!
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