Bradley's Buzz

No rights not so right

I don't like to get political on this blog but since it is Bradley's Buzz and I'm Bradley I'm gonna buzz.... It's been about one year since I woke up in the morning to find out one of my rights was taken away by a majority of people who don't even know who the hell I am. Today, I woke up with the same feeling since Maine has now lost their gay marriage rights.

Maine made a Legislative law that gay marriage was legal and of course anti-gay bigots decided to turn it to the people because you know the majority rules is always, always the right course of action. I don't care what anybody says if there were to be a new proposition to take away marriage between black and white people there are certainly places the majority would rule for it. That's because there are twisted, sick, overly religious, over judgemental, overpowered people everywhere. People are selfish and want what they think is best for them. The court is supposed to step in some cases where those selfish people are not capable of making the right decision.

The courts in Maine knew that, the courts in California knew that, the courts in 4 other states know that and yet people can come in and vote away rights. That's exactly what it is. If the law says that you can do something but I can't, then that my pals is a civil right violation.

In Washington, the government decided that since all these religious zealots keep saying you can have your civil unions and domestic partnerships just as long as you don't call it marriage (an idea that also permeates in the head of our elected Obama), they would come up with the "Everything But Marriage" Act. It sounds perfect - everyone is happy despite the whole separate but equal imposition - but again those opposed to anything gay decided to throw it on the ballot. I guess "you can call it anything but marriage" was still too big of a crumb to throw to your fellow citizens.

I can't tell anyone enough how this whole thing boils down to religion and people who think being gay is a choice. After all what a choice one could make - in other countries gay people are punished by death and somehow it seems to me had someone asked them if they would now choose to be straight, some may, just may, turn around and say, "Fine I'm straight. Can I live now? After all this was all just the wrong decision." Bullshit.

Wanda Sykes mentions in one of her comedy specials that if gay people are choosing to be gay doesn't that mean that straight people are choosing not to be gay. "Why do you choose to live your life as a gay?" well "Why did you choose to be straight?" Some in other minorities believe they fought for something more important, they were born black, Asian, Indian etc. Well I can whole heartily say I was born gay.

The people who feel this gay fight is not akin to the civil rights fights before also seem to think gay people can pass where a black man walks into a room and everyone knows he's black, well I can also atone to the fact that when I walk into a room, people know I'm gay - they have always known that. Now sure I could probably take some asinine class to show me how to walk, talk more masculine and perhaps "pass"... but doesn't all that seem a little like the thing that light skinned black people also went through?

It's all a bunch of bullshit, because gay marriage, gay civil rights, anti-discrimination laws and the like have nothing to do with religion. Our country may have religious backdrops but the fact was the people who came over and stomped over the civil rights of those crazy natives that lived here, came here so they could have freedom.

Well I want freedom - I want my rights and I want the rights for everyone. Our government is supposed to separate church and state so that the Catholics can't make everything under Catholic theology, so the Mormons can't make everything under Mormon mythology, so the Atheists can't make everyone see the world as they do. The laws are about people and not about what particular religions or ideas rule. We are all people.

The other arguments of the horrible slippery slope of moral decay has nothing to do with me and it has nothing to do with others religious beliefs. I think a world where everyone is equal sounds pretty nice and peaceful to me. The implications of what happens in my bedroom as a gay person is just as much their business as what happens in their house. I don't care, why the hell do they care so much about me?

Gay marriage is a marriage between two people of the same sex, if you do not want to get married to a person of the same sex, no one is forcing you do it. So how can I be forced to not do it. Or even worse being able to do it in one place and not in another.

The thing is the opposition states this is about marriage but it's not, it's about hating gay people. They don't want us to get married because they don't want us around. These people want us to repent, to change who we are or to die. Harsh, sure, but no matter how they 'tolerate' us or how many 'gay friends' they have, it's all rubbish. If Maggie Gallagher really has a gay friend I want to meet him so I can slap his face for hanging out with such a retched character.

I don't know where our next stop on this horrible twisted ride into gay Apartheid will take us but I do know that until that damn DOMA is knocked down, this is going to go on forever with more and more states giving rights, people taking them away until something is going to snap.

I was never been so fired up and proud as I was when the GLBT groups rose up and protested against the passage of Prop 8. This is a fight and we need to rise up and keep fighting. I don't know how exactly to do that, since every time there is a loss it feels like a part of your soul has been ripped out, but I do know that this can't end. We need to regroup and do it again and again but I have to say we really need the government to step in - until then we are just going to go through heartache after heartache.

Obama was voted in for change, I guess the gay community was left out of that change. I am happy and pleased that we got a few rights and the Matthew Shepard Act was finally brought onto the books, but come on - this is America.

After all of this, I have to say because California gave the LGBT people marriage rights before they were taken away, the Leivas and I are one of the 18,000 who are still legally married in California.. but that just means I'm separate in my state from the rest of the country (DOMA) and we're separate from those couples who want to get married post-Prop 8. I want rights for all of us and I don't want people I don't know telling me what they think is right is right and what I think is right is wrong. It's not their call.

Labels: Gay Marriage, Maine Question 1, Politics, Prop H8

posted by swivek @ 10:04 AM