Saturday, June 25, 2011

Daddy on the Edge of Weddings, Equality and "Evolving"


This past Friday, history was made. This past Friday, Republicans and Democrats came together and voted "YES" on same sex marriage in New York. The lead up to this was something to behold. On one hand, Republican Senator Roy MacDonald said,

"You get to the point where you evolve in your life where everything isn't black and white, good and bad, and you try to do the right thing," McDonald, 64, told reporters.

"You might not like that. You might be very cynical about that. Well, fuck it, I don't care what you think. I'm trying to do the right thing.

"I'm tired of Republican-Democrat politics. They can take the job and shove it. I come from a blue-collar background. I'm trying to do the right thing, and that's where I'm going with this."


Wow. Just...Fucking...Wow. Watching a Republican come around to that way of thinking, and say something like that so openly, so honestly - well, it makes Daddy a little less jaded.

Than we had this;

At a White House briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney stressed that the president had been nothing but consistent in saying that his position was "evolving" on the topic.

"What I know is what his position was during the campaign and what it is now," Carney said. "He’s been very clear about it. He was very clear in the campaign. He’s very clear about the fact that his position is evolving. I don’t have anything to add to that."

Wow. Just...Fucking...Wow. Evolving? Really, Mr. President? That's such an incredibly "un-Progressive" way of putting it.

In this same article, it says that Obama believes that gay marriage is an issue best addressed by the states. Well I gotta tell you, the states have been doing a bang up job of it so far. Here's a map of how the states feel about gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships;




Laws regarding same-sex partnerships in the United States

Same-sex marriage1

Unions granting rights similar to marriage1,2

Legislation granting limited/enumerated rights1

Same-sex marriages performed elsewhere recognized1

No specific prohibition or recognition of same-sex marriages or unions

Statute bans same-sex marriage

Constitution bans same-sex marriage

Constitution bans same-sex marriage and some or all other kinds of same-sex unions


1May include recent laws or court decisions which have created legal recognition of same-sex relationships, but which have not entered into effect yet.
2Same-sex marriage laws in California are complicated, please see the article on same-sex marriage in California.


Looking at this map, I think I may slap the next person who uses the phrase, "Separate but Equal". Separate? No Doubt. Equal? No Chance. And how could there be real equality? I mean, look at what people have said about gay marriage;


(This is a direct re-print of an article written by Eric Zorn for The Chicago Tribune - Check it;)



MARRIAGE ISSUE JUST AS PLAIN AS BLACK AND WHITE

By Eric Zorn

Statement No. 1: Same-sex marriage must be forbidden, said the Republican senator from Wisconsin, "simply because natural instinct revolts at it as wrong."

Statement No. 2. An organization opposed to gay marriage claimed legalizing them would result in "a degraded and ignoble population incapable of moral and intellectual development," and rested this belief on the "natural superiority with which God (has) ennobled heterosexuals."

Statement No. 3. "I believe that the tendency to classify all persons who oppose gay marriage as 'prejudiced' is in itself a prejudice," grumped a noted psychologist. "Nothing of any significance is gained by such a marriage."

Statement No. 4. A U.S. representative from Georgia declared that allowing gay marriages "necessarily involves (the) degradation" of conventional marriage, an institution that "deserves admiration rather than execration."

Statement No. 5. "The next step will be that gays and lesbians will demand a law allowing them, without restraint, to . . . have free and unrestrained social intercourse with your unmarried sons and daughters," warned a Kentucky congressman. "It is bound to come to that. There is no disguising the fact. And the sooner the alarm is given and the people take heed, the better it will be for our civilization."

Statement No. 6. "When people of the same sex marry, they cannot possibly have any progeny," wrote an appeals judge in a Missouri case. "And such a fact sufficiently justifies those laws which forbid their marriages."

Statement No 7. Same-sex marriages are "abominable," according to Virginia law. If allowed, they would "pollute" America.

Statement No 8. In denying the appeal of a same-sex couple that had tried unsuccessfully to marry, a Georgia court wrote that such unions are "not only unnatural, but . . . always productive of deplorable results," such as increased effeminate behavior in the population. "They are productive of evil, and evil only, without any corresponding good . . . (in accordance with) the God of nature."

Statement No. 9. A gay marriage ban is not discriminatory, reasoned a Republican congressman from Illinois, because it "applies equally to men and women."

Statement No. 10. Attorneys for the state of Tennessee argued that such unions should be illegal because they are "distasteful to our people and unfit to produce the human race. . . ." The state supreme court agreed, declaring gay marriages would be "a calamity full of the saddest and gloomiest portent to the generations that are to come after us."

Statement No. 11. Lawyers for California insisted that a ban on same-sex marriage is necessary to prevent "traditional marriage from being contaminated by the recognition of relationships that are physically and mentally inferior. . . . (and entered into by) the dregs of society."

Statement No. 12. "The law concerning marriages is to be construed and understood in relation to those persons only to whom that law relates," thundered a Virginia judge in response to a challenge to that state's non-recognition of same-sex unions. "And not," he continued, "to a class of persons clearly not within the idea of the legislature when contemplating the subject of marriage."

To sum up: Legal recognition of such marriages would offend tradition, God, the sensibilities of the majority and the natural order while threatening conventional marriage, children and the future of our
civilization.

The quotes are culled from a Boston University Law Review article and a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, though I did take the minor liberty of changing the subject of the strangled rage, fear and righteous indignation.

Everywhere I quoted the speakers referring to same-sex marriage, homosexuality and heterosexuality, they were actually referring to interracial marriage and their views of black people, white people and the proper interaction thereof. And yes, that includes statement No. 6, which in original form articulated the old white supremacist belief that offspring of whites and blacks were--like mules that result when horses mate with donkeys--sterile.

The quotes date from 1823 to 1964 and, though the sentiments look hatefully ridiculous to us in 1996, they had sufficient appeal and staying power that 15 states still criminalized black-white marriage until the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned those laws in the appropriately named 1967 case, Loving vs. Virginia.

Those whose unaltered words today resemble statements 1 through 12 above, take note. The stench is familiar. The future is listening.

I guess it's a good thing that certain states "evolved" before others; otherwise, the President's parents wouldn't have been able to get married.



That was candidate Obama who said, "My job as President is going to be to make sure that the legal rights that have consequences on a day to day basis for loving, same sex couples - that those rights are recognized and enforced by my White House and my Justice Department". Those rights have not been recognized to the degree that they should, Sir. Half measures do not work. More needs to be done. More always needs to be done.

While I agree that you have gone further than most Administrations, the fact still remains that a very large portion of Americans are legally treated as second class citizens, because of nothing more than who their brain chemistry tells them to be attracted to, and their courage to not hide that part of themselves from a hating, self-important, incredibly self-righteous faction of fellow Americans.

There will always be those citizens demanding that we continue to discriminate against the LGBT community. They are fashioned from the same material that went to war over the right to keep slaves, felt completely justified denying women and blacks the vote, and saw themselves as chosen by God to keep blacks and whites from taking the vows of marriage. They are the simple minds, the spoiled children of this country - and it's high time we stopped catering to their every whim.

Liberty and Justice For ALL, Mr. President. Time to start living the message.

And, if all that wasn't enough, here's the Golden Girls.





Be Proud,

Daddy

5 comments:

  1. Thanks, my friend. Have I mentioned lately that you're one of my heroes? Just in case you didn't know...

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  2. Well said, as always. Ditto on that hero thing.

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  3. Thank you for posting this and it was so beautifully written. (You will be happy to know that I have checked one thing off of my bucket list and finally started my blog. I have only posted a few short posts that I just wrote, but more will be coming. I wanted to tell you, since I am now off of FB. You can check me out at " Prolifically Correct " ... Fran came up with the title, ha ha. )
    Thank you again for always helping us fight the fight and for urging America to do the right thing and to fight the fight. We need just... a million more of you to help us, so that perhaps NJ will be the next state for legalized gay marriage. (* coughing with sarcasm and bowing my head in sadness, because well...we have Christie in office.) ;)

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  4. Y'all are making Daddy blush. ;)

    Seriously, thank you, thank you, thank you all for being such dedicated readers and such amazing friends.

    John, I'm not doing anything that you wouldn't do for me - guess that makes us both heroes.

    Suz, you are the friendship and support that gets me through some of the harder days - thank you for..well...for being you. :)

    Jen, I am so proud of you - for all you are doing to pursue your career and your passion, for starting your blog (and I hope you keep up with it - it can be tough sometimes!) - and for being the person that you know you are meant to be. I know that seems like something that should come easy to people, but you would be surprised at how hard it is for some.

    Y'all are the wind beneath Daddy's wings. Thanks for being part of my life (and part of this blog)!

    Loves ya,

    Daddy

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  5. Great post man truly heartfelt and warming..

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