Shame on every single American who voted for props 8, 102, or 2 and enshrined discrimination in the state constitution.
But doubly shame on all the African-Americans who voted for it. It was not long ago that you didn’t have the right to marry people of different races. How ironic that you now want to deny that right to people of different genders.
A quote from an African-American woman I found on a blog post talking about gay marriage:
As for it not being the same thing, well I read an argument several years back. It was over a hundred years old. It spoke of all the reasons black people should not be allowed to marry, not each other, and not whites, why they should not be citizens, why they should not be allowed to own land, why they should not be allowed to vote. Why they were trying to seek more rights than white citizens had. Why it was against God, country and religion.
It chilled me to the core – If you crossed out every instance of ‘negro’ in that document and put in ‘gay’, it was nothing more or less than what is being said by some people today. No difference at all.
If those things were all horrible lies about people like us, how can the same arguments suddenly be truth for others who aren’t like us?
And how as black Americans can we support this bias?
If you voted for the propositions, please, think about that. Think about how unthinkable it would be today for you to suggest that Blacks or Asians should only marry within their race. And ask yourself why it is suddenly okay to deny that to people based on gender.
Also, QFT:
Symbolism matters to disenfranchised people in a way that is hard to explain to those of us who always knew we could be anything we want to be in America. Forget president. Gay people can’t even be spouses, though Britney Spears could have her umpteenth marriage tomorrow just by stumbling into a quickie Vegas chapel. Scott Peterson has the legal right to marry on death row after murdering his wife and unborn child.
No matter how undeserved, straight people never lose the right to marry; no matter how worthy, gay people cannot earn it.