I haven’t had the opportunity the last two nights, but tomorrow I will be joining my brothers and sisters on the streets of Los Angeles to protest prop 8.
I truly believe that this is an historic event and I would not be able to face myself in the mirror if I didn’t get involved. I am unable to stand by while other people fight for my rights. I don’t want to have to tell people that I stood by when I had the chance to help make history and help create equality.
I was in the fight early on when all it involved was donating money and time to the campaign. I cannot stand by now.
I spent wednesday in depression, I spent today going back and forth between depression and anger. I’m pissed that my basic civil rights are even being put up to a vote. That is utter and complete bullshit. I’m pissed that we are being put through this at a time when we should be able to celebrate other victories. I realize we are backed into a corner and I will fight. Never back down, never surrender. The stakes are too high this time.
I realize this topic has been covered in numerous threads already and I apologize for starting yet another but I felt I had to express this.
I’m just curious - and let me state for the record that I find the passing of Prop 8 both sickening and saddening, if unfortunately not all that surprising.
BUT:
There was a vote. The People (who voted) decided to pass it. What’s the problem here?
Well, to read many of the stories surrounding the understanding of the proposition, it doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone grokked it was actually against gay marriage. So, if they promoted what came across as a false premise, I can certainly see why that’s just one reason to fight against it.
The other would be because it’s inhumane.
Finally, this straight woman from Texas is sending you her virtual support Antinor. Kick ass and take names. Someday there really will be a wall for this revolution.
They were wrong to do so. Should blacks have just shrugged and said, “Oh well, guess we’ll just have to stay in the back of the bus” whenever a vote went against them ?
Hear, hear. Hell, even I’m thinking of going to some kind of protest or public display, if and when this goes to the CA Supreme Court. And I’m no damn liberal—I don’t even really like liberals. And I sure as hell don’t like protesters.
But this Prop passing has made me ashamed to be a Californian for the first time in my life.
Maybe I can hand out Alka-Seltzer to any Mormon counter-protesters, so they have something to feed their seagulls. :mad:
The problem with this is that homosexuals are in a different position than are black people when it comes to equal protection claims because of the “immutability” problem. Google it to get an education.
If I were given the chance to vote for gay marriage in my state, I would do so, but I do not think that not allowing gays to marry violates their rights under the U.S. Constitution.
What am I to be googling? Immutability in relation to what? If I google “immutability” I get a myriad of different pages on different things, from “the immutability of God” to “immutability in C#” to basic definitions of the word “immutability”.
My understanding of the word itself is that it means “unchangeable nature”. Are you suggesting that homosexuality is something that is subject to change, as opposed to race, which is not? Because if you are, you’re wrong.
First, I’m not suggesting a goddamned thing. I’m just talking about the current state of the law under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Second, google “immutability equal protection” and maybe throw a “homosexual” in there (but your hits should get to homosexuality soon enough).
One of the reasons that sexual orientation is not a protected class under equal protection analysis is that it has been repeatedly found that homosexuality does not meet the required characteristics for such treatment, one of which is immutability. I think SCOTUS believes that because a person can act straight, that is sufficient. And, from their mind set, it probably is. After all at least one of their number has been doing exactly that for years.
And this is the first I’ve heard of any of the justices rumored to be closeted…who’s the suspect?
Edited: And by “they’re wrong”, I mean in the same way that they would be wrong if they ruled that the sky was a crystal hemisphere, with the stars being lamps attached thereto. It’s just physically and factually wrong, no matter that their word is law in the legal sense. They’d still be wrong.
SCOTUS has already ruled on the immutability problem. Did you miss Lawrence v. Texas?
If you’re asking if there’s a reason to bother protesting - ie., there may be a viable legal challenge, then the answer is we don’t know. If you’re asking why people are upset, well, that should be obvious.
Irrelevant. Homosexuality isn’t a choice, nor does it matter; you can’t forbid people to marry because of choices, either. You can be a convicted straight thief, rapist or serial killer and still get married to who you love; just not homosexual.
And I don’t care what the Constitution says; bigoted is bigoted.
Because many of the people who oppose gay marriage and gay rights generally hope that homosexuals will crawl back into the closet after something like this. They know gays and lesbians are out there, but they don’t want to acknowledge their existance.
The importance of the demonstrations, to me, is to show that this isn’t going away. That our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters are part of every level of our community, intertwined with our lives. That discriminating against them hurts real people. And to show that this is a set back, not the end.