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West Virginia
I suppose I should try to take some comfort knowing that President Obama will nominate the next two or three justices to the Supreme Court … because yesterday’s election was NOT an auspicious one for Gay Americans:
In Arizona voting Americans decided that Gay couples don’t deserve to marry, while in Florida they decided that not only do Gay couples not deserve the right to marry, but that they don’t deserve legal and contractual protections that even “civil unions” would provide. In Arkansas, Americans decided that the state’s 9,000 children in foster care are better off there than adopted by Gay couples. And in California …. CALIFORNIA, for chrissake …. the legally determined right for Gay couples to marry was abolished, and nearly 20,000 Gay couples may now eventually have their marriages declared null and void.
So while I’m happy that Barack Obama won the election, I’m tremendously dismayed that so many voters have decided Gay Americans don’t deserve full inclusion in society.
I know what you mean, Chuck. But I think this is still a step in the right direction. I think that if we make some smaller changes in the direction of allowing gay marriage, then we can set a firm foundation for those changes to rest upon. Large changes (like California legalizing gay marriage) never seem to stick.
Personally, I don’t understand why it’s not legalized anyway. I don’t understand why we can’t just accept gay marriage, since so many are, in fact, “married” in all ways but legally. I don’t get the hangup. If religion is the issue, then why do we legally accept non-Christian marriages, civil unions… etc? It doesn’t make sense not to recognize gay marriage.
Having a black president will pave the way toward more tolerance, I think. And his stance on gay marriage — while not outwardly supporting it (which probably would have cost him the election, because so many people are douchebags) does lead us toward supporting gay marriage in the future.
Hang in there — we’re working on it. I know it’s not fast enough for everyone living with it right now (I would be furious!) but I do believe it’s going to happen. Hope can accomplish so much, so don’t lose it.
Yeah, I was really disappointed to see that Prop. 8 passed. I’m wondering about the affect on gay couples who are already married, though. I haven’t read any legal analysis on this, but it seems to me that it would be unconstitutional to retroactively declare someone’s marriage illegal when they were married at a time when it was legal under California law. I’m assuming there will be legal challenges.
I understand why Democratic candidates take the position they do, but I think it sucks. Saturday Night Live did a good job pointing out the absurdity of it in their VP debate sketch. Joe Biden said he thinks gay couples should have the exact same rights as straight couples, but when Gwen Ifill asks him if he supports gay marriage he says no, absolutely not. Democrats are supposed to stand for equality, and I think they should take a hard stance on gay marriage.
I agree that gay marriage, or at least civil unions, should be legal, but at this point in our society the issue is similar to gun control: too much support on the part of Democrats will lose us elections every time.
It’s quite a conundrum, but if I have to choose – and I do – I’ll take a Democrat that doesn’t publicly support gay marriage over 95% of Republicans any day.
Look at it this way: if Obama/Biden had come out in favor of gay marriage, we would be completely dejected today with President-Elect John McCain and scariest of all, Vice-President-Elect Sarah Palin.
I hate that it is that way, but it is. For now.
““Congratulations, President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama””
Truly, what impact will this have on West Virginia’s white poor? WV needs to provide better assistance and programs to improve the life of people that can barely feed their children, or keep them in clothing, while also providing adequate housing.
WV needs help and if it can not get federal help, then who will help?
It’s sad to see so much money leaving the country for wanting to help everyone else, when we can’t even help our own. The salt of the earth. Gods chosen. The people of West Virginia.
The purest of heart.
“If Obama/Biden had come out in favor of gay marriage, we would be completely dejected today with President-Elect John McCain and scariest of all, Vice-President-Elect Sarah Palin. I hate that it is that way, but it is. For now.”
DEAR JAY:
I understand and appreciate the argument. I would NOT have wanted Sen. Obama to throw his support behind marriage equality for Gay couples if it could have cost him the election. I’m not THAT politically naive. But what’s so ironic is that the increased Black vote that helped Obama win the election ALSO apparently ensured the approval of Proposition 8 in California:
http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2008/11/prop-8-and-the.html
It’s clear that many of those who voted to shatter the color barrier to the White House also voted to pull the rug out from under Gay Americans. As much as it pains me to say this, it’s almost as though many of those same Black voters felt the need to lash out vindictively, and the Gay community presented the easiest target. I wish I could ask them how they would feel if THEIR marriages were put up for a popular vote.
I’m going on 50 years of age, and suddenly it seems pretty unlikely that I’ll see marriage equality for Gay couples within my lifetime. And it’s more profoundly depressing than I can possibly express. I can only hope that the new administration and the new congress will give more than lip service to the millions of Gay Americans that helped put them in office.
A worm wish to you for your Great Victory.
From
Those who are empty stomac…..
Don’t get me wrong, he’s better than the alternative, but O was never my candidate. He’s just not liberal enough for someone like me, whose political ideology takes more left turns than a Nascar race.
One of the things that i was most disappointed in was that someone who is black couldn’t (or wouldn’t) see that gay rights are, quite simply, a basic civil rights issue. I’ve got no problem with a church telling me that they don’t want to marry me for one reason or another – that’s their perogative. What bothers me is this widespread legal and politial treading on another person’s non-lethal, non-harming, quite-frankly-none-of-your-damn-business “pursuit of happiness”. I don’t see any difference between a system discriminating against someone because they happen to be black and telling them what they can or can’t do based purely on race and a sytem discriminating against someone because they happen to be gay.
…but like I say – better than the alternative.
Bingo. This is a basic civil rights issue. There is no rational argument against allowing any two competent adults who wish to do so to share the legal protections of marriage. Aside from that, there is only religious sanction, which should be the province of the church involved.
All the arguments I’ve heard – basic structure of the family, children need a two-gendered home, etc. are clearly smoke screens – we don’t force mothers to give up thier jobs and stay in the home for the children’s sake, we allow single parents to raise their children, and we don’t prevent those who don’t want children from marrying. So what’s the rationale?
Answer: There isn’t one. It’s just that gays make Joe the Plumber feel icky. And Joe hasn’t yet been taught that part of living in a free country is that you have to put up with a certain amount of discomfort with your neighbors’ freedom. He’s full of the pride that flattery breeds on ignorance, and believes that he knows, or God has told him, how everyone else should live. And until he gets over that, we’re going to have to fight this fight over and over again.
Until Joe gets it.
Hey, I thought this was a truly interesting read on the scapegoating of African Americans in the passage of Prop 8: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/7/34645/1235/704/656272. As heartbroken as I am about Prop 8 (and all the other anti-gay stuff that passed), I really hate to see the narrative centering around the AA vote in California in a way that really distorts the picture. Media loves a juicy explanation like this, but again, I think it’s a distortion that is ultimately pretty racist.