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Still so far away...

On one level, I find it incredible that a state in which 61% of the voters decided to elect a black man president also decided to pass Prop. 8. Why is it okay to break the racial barrier, but not okay to allow gay people access to the same kinds of rights we give everyone else? What really gets me is the way the Yes on 8 campaign was run - essentially threatening people that if they didn't vote for Prop. 8, the whole moral fabric of society would collapse.

Their children would be "taught" gay marriage in schools. (In much the same way schools "teach" straight marriage, I suppose, by books and videos and classroom sessions mentioning that when people grow up and they love each other very much, they get married.) The institution of marriage would be threatened. (Because two gay people marrying each other prevents straight people from getting married.) That traditional values would be threatened. (But if we stuck with "traditional" Biblical values, we'd still be exchanging camels as dowry and condoning polygamy.)

In ten or fifteen or twenty years, my children are going to ask me why it is that people in my generation could manage set race aside but couldn't let go of homophobic fears and hatreds. And I won't have an answer for them.

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on November 05, 2008 (boomark / email).