Now that I am no longer in such a funk, I have found some cool articles about the Prop. 8 thingamabob in California.
The pattern is as old as fear itself. Remember, only rarely does true progress appear as a single, momentous, Obama-like shift that reverberates across the planet and changes everything in an instant. Most frequently it comes in fits and starts and hiccups, small lurches and hard-fought battles shot through with little spitballs of hate and intolerance and heaps of misunderstanding. You know, just like now.
Evidence? Plenty. Just look at the numbers: Support for gay marriage is now the highest it’s been in American history, somewhere between 42 and 48 percent nationwide. Just a few decades ago, support was down in the 20s. It’s been rising steadily ever since, never once regressing.
Or, flip that data around. According to FiveThirtyEight, marriage bans like California’s are losing support at a rate of about two percent a year. According to that model, more than half of U.S. states will vote against bans like the contemptible Prop 8 as soon as 2012, if not sooner. By 2024, even miserably homophobic joints like Alabama and Mississippi will be flying the rainbow flag.
If Liza Minnelli & Star Jones Can Marry a Gay Man…
I say, “Don’t Be Afraid of Love”. Marriage is a social custom not a religious edict. Even within the context of religion it is a custom that is practiced differently around the world today just as it has been throughout history. Different societies practice marriage differently according to the customs of their belief systems. God has never weighed in on the issue – if he has, he’s obviously been a flip-flopper and you know how we feel about flip-floppers. So there goes your religious argument.
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So, if the institution of marriage is so sacred why is it easier to get a marriage license than it is to get a driver’s license? States tell you that having a driver’s license is a privilege not a right ( a right they will gladly take away and worse – unless you are a celebrity) so the DMV creates tests and hurdles that most people fail their first time (kind of like marriage actually) to insure only potentially good drivers get licenses – drivers who won’t hurt other people. And the great equalizer is that every few years every license holder must study and take a pain-in-the-ass test again to reassess their knowledge and skills if they want to keep their license; and many people fail. Yet any psycho or unhealthy individual can get married, propagate and mess up a brand new generation of innocent people’s lives – which hurts society and their sacred exclusive institution of marriage – by being asked only one simple question that is answered, “ I doâ€. How many other questions could be answered similarly without nearly the importance?