NO on PROP. 8
Luke and I went to one of our favorite restaurants, The Gathering, today. Our table was beside the window. We saw the same familiar faces we always see. The waiter took our order. The middle-aged, rather hip blonde woman who has been working there since Luke and I first visited the restaurant was doing the crossword at the end of the counter. I ordered a burger and Luke ordered half a turkey sandwich. While we were waiting for our order both Luke and I picked up on the conversation the hip crossword woman was having with the gay waiters. She told them she was voting yes on Prop. 8 because marriage was a religious ceremony and she didn’t want her church forced to marry two gay people and especially more than two gay people at the same time. Then she laughed. Our food arrived. I asked our waiter, he’d been conversing with the hip crossword woman, if she was playing devil’s advocate or if she was really going to vote yes on Prop. 8? He said he wished she was playing devil’s advocate but she was serious. She was going to vote against my right to stay married.
The fact that this woman could talk within earshot of the man I love and married on August 9, 2008, after being together with him for 24 years, and the fact that she has a vote, yes a vote, about whether I can or cannot stay married to Luke struck me as a violation of everything I know about myself as an American. It’s humiliating. First of all, the very idea that the people in the state of California get to vote on my rights to stay married is madness. And secondly, leave me the hell alone Mormon Church. You have funded close to 70% of the campaign that wants to take away my marriage rights. What the fuck have I done to you? Keep your hands off me, my life and my marriage.
October 25th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
You nailed all of this. Those who vote yes on this and that woman-hip or not-are like the Pharisees in the Bible: They stand on the street corner and tell everyone what is right–except what is in their hearts is hate. Stupidity. Lack of feeling. Meanness. In today’s world if people like that still exist there is no hope for them. Period.
I wish we could legislate “good.” I would vote for that. But what California is trying to do is insane. I, as Arnold said, think they need to pass a law enabling a “foreign born man to run as President.” (Not really, but he certainly transmits the right idea.)
You know in your hearts that you have been married for over 24 years. No license will ever make that truer. No amendment could ever take that away. However, it can play havoc on your nerves and emotions.
Just know that-for what it is worth-I am on your side (and Luke’s) and have written newspapers in California and the two senators from there as well. I think we need to pass a law concerning stupid people who have nothing to do other than aggravate others who have a life.