However, what's finally spurred me into creating this blog was the CA Supreme Court's decision to uphold Prop 8. For those who don't know, in November while making a tremendous stride towards equality by electing Barrack Obama, Californians took two steps back by simultaneously passing Prop 8, which "Eliminates the Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry." I think it's a sad day when CA is more backward than Iowa. I understand the Supreme Court was placed in a difficult position of either overturning the voter's decision or upholding a proposition that strips Californians of their rights. However, I agree with dissenting Associate Justice Carlos Moreno that the Supreme Court has made all of our civil rights more tenuous by placing them at the mercy of the majority of the moment.
I think the issue of LGBT equality is this generation's civil rights test. Every generation must face the beast of discrimination, and it is a testament to the intelligence of that generation as to how quickly they pick up the fact that all people deserve equality and justice under the law. From women's right to work outside the home, all the way back to slavery, every generation has been confronted with their own ignorance and penchant for discrimination. Sadly, not one generation has learned their lessons from history. I'm sure Americans before the Civil War could be heard to remark, "Well, of course it's wrong to discriminate against other white people based on landholdings, but it's fine to own a black person like a piece of property." Then the next generation remarked, "Well, of course owning someone is deplorable, but segregation? That's cool." All the way up to our own era, where most people recognize that slavery, segregation, and even prohibiting interracial marriage is wrong, but for some reason denying legal equality to same-sex couples, well that's just fine!
Some people say it's a matter of tradition, to which I say pick up a history book! There are a lot of sordid traditions in this country that we let go along time ago when we realized how deplorable they were. Secondly, marriage in concept and in fact has changed throughout the centuries. It's no longer seen as a business proposition, unless you'se a golddigger. It's also no longer seen as permanent or, let's face it, a promise of fidelity.
Now all these people who say they're protecting the sanctity of marriage I want to ask, where were you when the show "Who Wants to Marry A Millionaire?" aired? I didn't hear one protest about how this befouled a sacred religious institution, nor have I seen a single protester in Vegas crying out against the drive-thru chapels. But let one loving couple who both have the same naughty parts try to make a commitment and become a financially stable unit, and sound the alarms the end of the world is coming!
Well, proponents of Prop 8, take comfort while you can, because you may have won this battle, but you're going to lose the war, and know this, there may be more at stake then you imagine. There has never been a time when discrimination has won out. Never. I take heart from a quote from Gandhi, "When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always."
The biggest opponents of same-sex marriage in CA are the churches. When I say the stakes are higher than they may have anticipated, I mean for the churches. I'll give an example, my father, by no means a liberal man, was raised vaguely Christian. He in turn raised my brothers and myself in this same religious vein. I have never heard him utter a negative word against any church or religion, until this past election. At which point my father told me that he had voted against Prop 8 because he was "sick of the
I would, finally, say to the churches, I'm not asking you to not believe that homosexuality is a sin. If that's your belief and your faith, you have every right to follow that, preach it, and practice it. I simply ask you to return the favor. If I don't ask/demand/legislate how you practice your faith, please don't ask/demand/legislate how I (or any other) may practice mine.
Lastly, and a little tangentially, you may be curious why this blog is entitled "Rejecting Silence." It's in honor of a quote by the fearless Ayaan Hirsi Ali who wrote in her autobiography, Infidel, "There are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice." I believe Ms. Ali is absolutely right, and we all need to speak out against the injustices and cruelties we are witness too.
Thank you for reading my blog, or if I channel Steven Colbert I should say, "You're Welcome."
