No on Prop 8

It's Write to Marry Day, where bloggers speak out against the retardedness of Prop. 8. Here is the Gurgling Cod's guide to witnessing to clueless homophobes from 2006. Hope it helps. Hope it works:

Many of you will have the chance tomorrow to vote on a definition of marriage amendment in one form or another. By and large, these are initiatives that seek to define a marriage as a union of one woman and one man, with the idea being that other kinds of couples, like two dudes or two ladies, should not be entitled to the same privileges as straight couples. If you are considering supporting such an initiative, a few thoughts:

     1) Supporting same-sex unions does not make you gay. You might be a dude who thinks sex with another dude is totally icky. However, that seems like a poor reason to deny a couple the right to make medical decisions on behalf of one another.

 2) If gay people make you uncomfortable, are you less comfortable with gay couples refinishing antique furniture and grooming their pets, or with single gay folks hanging out at rest areas? Is allowing same-sex partners to claim survivors’ pension and Social Security benefits likely to lead to an explosion of gay sex where your kids will see?

 3) You may feel that the purpose of marriage is procreation. By this logic, infertile couples would not be allowed to marry either. Indeed, under this logic, couples would have to prove they were fertile before they could get married, raising the specter of compulsory premarital sex to uphold the institution of marriage. Also, the last time I checked, there was not a population shortage. Should health insurance be a special treat for potential baby-havers?

 4) It says “Adam and Eve” in the Bible, not “Adam and Steve.” True enough. Yet, many hetero couples are not named Adam or Eve. More generally, I would argue that arguing from a genital identity degrades the very idea of what marriage is. If marriage is a union of two people who are uniquely suited to one another, why define that bond in terms of what your spouse has in common with every other member of their gender? If it is your husband’s penis or your wife’s vagina that defines that person for you, your marriage is in trouble.

 5) If you want a special, hetero-only blessing for your union, there are many churches that would be happy to help you out. Have your religious ceremony, and thumb your nose at the gays all you want, but depriving other folks of their civil rights is a pretty lame way to make your marriage more special. The Fesser and the cinetrix tied the knot in Massachusetts before the gays could marry there, and that state’s subsequent sanction of same-sex partnerships has not undermined our relationship to any significant degree.

I will clamber off my soapbox now. Don't forget to vote tomorrow.

Comments

[Derek]

I live in California and am desperately hoping this does not pass. If it does, we'll just wait until all the stupid old people who voted for it die, and then repeal it.

[Frodnesor]

I plan to lobby for an amendment to my state constitution which recognizes marriage only as the union of two men (one of whom must be a midget), four women, a goat and a transistor radio.