Yes, we can.
With less than 5% of precincts remaining to report in, I think it's pretty clear that Proposition 8 has passed.
This breaks my heart. In the midst of my joy at the Obama victory and my hope for a better future, I heard the pundits proclaiming victory over our bigoted, divided past. I heard them talking about how little brown children everywhere could dream of running for President. Our children can aspire to anything they want in this brave new world, everyone is saying.
Unless they are queer. Then, apparently, they can't even aspire to someday marry the person they love.
I am so disappointed in my fellow Californians, in their ignorance, blindness and intolerance. I had thought we were better than this. I had hoped we had grown. And we have, I suppose - Proposition 8 passed by 10% less than Proposition 22, another anti-gay-marriage proposition, did eight years ago. But it still wasn't enough.
And yet, I went out this morning to get coffee, and as the Squid and I waited to see the train (his treat for grocery store patience; the station is right next to the store) I realized something. Something obvious, but I'm a little slow sometimes to be able to shift perspective, so bear with me. I'm also no historian, so feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this.
The civil rights of minorities have never been established through popular vote in the United States.
They've often bounced back and forth in a few states, through the courts, voters, or state congresses. But it took the 14th Amendment, in the late 1800s, to give Black men the right to vote. Women didn't get the vote until the U.S. Congress passed the 19th Amendment in the 20's. It took the U.S. Supreme Court until 1967 to rule against anti-miscegenation laws. Abortion was illegal in most states in the years prior to Roe v. Wade.
It was not at all uncommon, in any of those cases, for courts or voters or legislatures to grant a right only to have the state constitutions amended to eliminate it later. It sometimes took forty years, sometimes a hundred, for the matter to be decided at the Federal level. I hope that the current struggle will not take nearly so long.
Proposition 8 was one battle, and I am devastated for all of us that we have lost it. But I do believe we will persevere, and that, in the end, we will overcome.
Yes, we can.
This breaks my heart. In the midst of my joy at the Obama victory and my hope for a better future, I heard the pundits proclaiming victory over our bigoted, divided past. I heard them talking about how little brown children everywhere could dream of running for President. Our children can aspire to anything they want in this brave new world, everyone is saying.
Unless they are queer. Then, apparently, they can't even aspire to someday marry the person they love.
I am so disappointed in my fellow Californians, in their ignorance, blindness and intolerance. I had thought we were better than this. I had hoped we had grown. And we have, I suppose - Proposition 8 passed by 10% less than Proposition 22, another anti-gay-marriage proposition, did eight years ago. But it still wasn't enough.
And yet, I went out this morning to get coffee, and as the Squid and I waited to see the train (his treat for grocery store patience; the station is right next to the store) I realized something. Something obvious, but I'm a little slow sometimes to be able to shift perspective, so bear with me. I'm also no historian, so feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this.
The civil rights of minorities have never been established through popular vote in the United States.
They've often bounced back and forth in a few states, through the courts, voters, or state congresses. But it took the 14th Amendment, in the late 1800s, to give Black men the right to vote. Women didn't get the vote until the U.S. Congress passed the 19th Amendment in the 20's. It took the U.S. Supreme Court until 1967 to rule against anti-miscegenation laws. Abortion was illegal in most states in the years prior to Roe v. Wade.
It was not at all uncommon, in any of those cases, for courts or voters or legislatures to grant a right only to have the state constitutions amended to eliminate it later. It sometimes took forty years, sometimes a hundred, for the matter to be decided at the Federal level. I hope that the current struggle will not take nearly so long.
Proposition 8 was one battle, and I am devastated for all of us that we have lost it. But I do believe we will persevere, and that, in the end, we will overcome.
Yes, we can.
posted by The Stute Fish at 08:21
1 Comments:
There are many battles before the war is won. I think the major issue for some people is the religious component of "marriage." I think if the constitution said "Civil Union" instead of marriage, the rights would already be set in stone.
And it makes me cringe when people say "between one man and one women as it has been since the beginning of time," some people don't know their history very well at all.
-Anon
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