When the great Tao is forgotten,
goodness and piety appear.
When the body’s intelligence declines,
cleverness and knowledge step forth.
When there is no peace in the family,
filial piety begins.
When the country falls into chaos,
patriotism is born.
Tao te Ching
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“OH MY GOD! A faggot touched my lawn! Somebody call the swat team!”
I actually screamed that from my balcony in October, 2008 to mock my neighbors who called the police in response to the theft of their pro-Proposition 8 sign by a kid. Being a left-wing pinko nut myself, I laughed and cheered as he ran up to their property, deftly leaped their conservative little picket fence, and ran off with their propaganda material.
I don’t think my neighbors like me much.
“The liberals are coming! The liberals are coming! Everybody take cover!!!”
The police, who actually showed up and stayed to guard the property against this dangerous criminal, didn’t appreciate my contributions either.
About 15 minutes after the police arrived, our law enforcement helicopter took to the sky, hunting down this dangerous rabble-rouser. The perp couldn’t have been more than 17-18 years old, but apparently in Conservative Christian California nothing short of a full armed response would do. I kept expecting to see the National Guard march down the street in riot gear.
The sight of a multi-million dollar helicopter circling the skies above our placid little beach town was too much for my logical sensibilities to handle. I made a call to the police. I asked them to please explain to me why my tax dollars were going to support a manhunt complete with aircraft to catch someone in the act of what really amounted to a childhood prank. The woman at the desk mumbled something about potential for violence in these situations (???) and said that the resources were available, so… I could actually hear her shrug with apathy.
That night, these signs went up on my 2nd story deck, where they could be clearly viewed by my neighbors.
Later I found out through http://eightmaps.com that those same neighbors had donated $10,000 to the “yes on 8” campaign. Ten. Thousand. Dollars.
That’s a lot of personal hate. Wouldn’t that kind of money be better spent on therapy?
Human Rights are only for those that think like me…
When it came time to vote, I was shocked to see these words on the ballot under the proposition description:
“Eliminates the rights….”
Hoodewha?
How could any sane American in the 21st century click “yes” next to anything that starts with the words “eliminates the rights?” I don’t care what you think about homosexuality and marriage or whether or not you’re afraid of butt sex and how its existence might tear apart the fabric of society; it was unfathomable to me that any human being could click “yes” after seeing those words.
And yet they did. 52.5% of them. They saw a chance to take away human rights from a group of people whose crime is wanting to love one another. Victory for the baby Jesus.
Even here in hyper-conservative Orange County, protestors came out in droves. My husband and I carried 5 foot signs saying things like “Recent Polls indicate there is a 52.5% chance that you are a BIGOT.” Most of our resident gays were much more peaceful, carrying rainbow flags and messages of love and hope. It was us Straight Against H8 folks who were flying flags of anger, calling upon our inner 1970s child to rage against the Man.
But for all the marches, protests, and public outrage, so far we are still the state that eliminated human rights. California. The same state that successfully shot down the Briggs Initiative in 1978 has wandered backwards in time to become a stronghold of prejudice, fear, and hate.
Will California be the last?
I read this morning that Connecticut finally ended its battle late Wednesday, passing a bill to update their state laws to allow for gay marriage. They will now be the fourth state to do so, after Massachusetts, Vermont, and Iowa.
IOWA? Yes. Corn-eating, truck-driving farmers are now more progressive than the state that hosted the Summer of Love. Every Californian should hang their head in shame. We should be leading the charge towards civil liberties, and yet we’re an anchor dragging in the beds of oppression. Shame on us.
Now we have Miss California, Carrie Prejean, proclaiming during the Miss USA pageant that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. She later defended her words by saying “God was testing my faith.” Her faith in what? Massive stupidity? Ms. Prejean, a very public representative of our state, is proudly giving our message of intolerance and prejudice to the world. And the world is listening.
Our legacy
In the future, history books will contain the records of this battle right alongside the stories of racial freedom and gender equality. California’s shame will be preserved for eternity, causing students to shake their heads and cluck their tongues. They will try to fathom the minds of those who could vote in such a way, just as they try to understand those who could support apartheid, slavery, discrimination, and McCarthyism.
My parents’ generation is famous for a worldwide revolution of love, peace, and acceptance. My generation will be famous for hatred.
I’m so proud.
Up the Tao Staircase 
Wow, you said it all there! I wish I had more to add. I just wanted to thank you for your voice of reason in the Cali wilderness. 🙂 If the str8t community ever comes to their senses, I think they’ll see that gay love is neither a threat to them nor to anyone else.
I promise you it isn’t just the straight community :). Many of us fully support the rights of all human beings. Personally I think it’s the religious reich. Richard Dawkins book “The God Delusion” was right on the money.
That is freaking brilliant, UTTS. Gave me goosebumps. No kidding.
You’re good.
The good news is that the mantle of “Voter Idiocy” has been lifted from Florida and transferred to the land of my youth.
You’re right…I am so proud of that vote.
Strange that one group of people can exercise their democratic right to vote and in doing so, take away the rights of others.
I don’t pretend to understand Americans, or religious people – but if they could see inside most “normal” marriages, I think there would be much less talk of the sanctity of it all.
You are all welcome to get married here in Canada – where your money will go further and you get a much nicer view of Niagara Falls.
thanks UTTS, you always give me much to think about.
You should have peppered their yard with rainbow flags while they slept.
That’s not what I’D have peppered their yard with…
I’ve lived in California all my life, and I don’t necessarily trust this state to be liberal. But then again, I don’t trust the “liberal” left to be authentically liberal, anyway. For me, the left and the right are two gangs of sanctimonious control freaks who cherry-pick certain freedoms to defend; to hell with all the other freedoms. It’s hypocritical to sympathize with gays who can’t marry each other while laughing off the protests of angry taxpayers with the “teabagging” double entendre. We’re all in this together.
Today, the true voice of classical liberalism belongs to the movement usually called libertarianism. To see how good libertarians are at exposing the self-righteous hokum on both ends of the political spectrum, please study the article “Curb Your Enthusiasms: Moralists left and right want to control your carnal desires.” It just might change your life.
I’d quibble with the notion that your generation will be remembered for hatred, I think rather it will be remembered for self-righteousness. (I hope this thing takes HTML tags. :-P)
I can’t be responsible for the idiocy and tribalism of the blinkered religious reich. I will not hang my head in shame, I drove 200 miles expressly to cast my No on H8 vote. Only those who did nothing, or voted Yes should be ashamed. And if the CA Supreme Court does not overturn Prop 8 (and we should know in about 5-6 weeks) every judge who allows this bigoted amendment to stand should be shamed. It is inexcusable that an issue of civil rights should be determined by a simple majority.
Let us vote on the rights of xians to practice their faith. How would that fly?
Personally, I think marriage is an unnatural act. I don’t know why anyone would want to do it, but if teh gaes are determined, there is no reason to prohibit them. What two consenting adults do in love has no impact on any other two. There is no sanctity in marriage; there is control over reproductive function, property and wealth, but sanctity? Give me a break! That’s a bunch of romantic hokum piled upon what used to be a political arrangement.
If marriage is a religious institution, then our secular government has no reason to legislate it–no matter the sex of the people involved. Marriages can happen in church. And no church will be forced to issue a marriage contract to any couple whose lifestyle it cannot condone. The only involvement of the law should be in the carrying out of the civil contract between the two parties, as to distribution of wealth and care of any children, in the event the contract is dissolved. Beyond that, government has no business acting on behalf of a religion’s preference. Ever.
Great comments, everyone! Thanks!
IF marriage a were religious concept, as the xians imply by their vote, then we either have to remove it from the scope of government, or we have to open government up to the scope of religion. If they want to mandate morality, they need to be open to the idea that government can mandate morality in a way that may not always suit them. What if we started a proposition that only baptists could marry, because other denominations are filled with hell-bound sinners? Or, if marriage is a christian mandate, why not mandate that all christians MUST be married? It’s such an obvious potential black hole of ethical confusion, but they seem happy to dance around the event horizon as long as their personal values are upheld.
HOWEVER I think limiting marriage to the “either/or” proposition of being a political or religious institution is inaccurate.
I am married and am not institutionalized (although some would argue I should be). My husband and I practice no religion, nor were we married in the church. My marriage is only holy to me. But it is, in fact, holy (for lack of a better word – damned that english language). It transcends political or financial obligations. My love for my husband is visceral, and being allowed to stand before our friends and enter into that union was a “sacred” moment. We didn’t HAVE to get married – there was no obligation. But we were privileged to do so.
While not for everyone, marriage can be a union so precious that it transcends pettiness like religion or government. It’s like the right to bear children – it is the fruit of the heart and should be a fundamental human right, hokum or not 🙂
Just as I would not force anyone to enter into that bond without choice, I can’t imagine telling anyone they can’t enter that bond because they lead a different life than mine.