Wednesday, November 05, 2008

I still don't get it

They're still tallying the votes, but at the moment it looks like the end run around the 2/3 majority required to change the state constitution may have passed by a slim margin.

What I still don't get, and probably never will, is how gay marriage would make other people's marriages "invalid." It isn't as though people are going down on one knee and saying, "Darling, would you exclude gay people with me for the rest of our lives?"

No, marriage is about love and commitment to one person, and the two people involved (and perhaps god, if you're into that sort of thing) are the only two that matter. My marriage is no less valid if other people's marriages are shams. Shit, plenty of heterosexual marriages fill that slot. Just because some people get married on a whim in Las Vegas, Britney Spears-style, or for money, green cards, or accidental pregnancies, it doesn't mean that my marriage is less well thought out and personally meaningful.

And to all those people who voted for Prop. 8 because they didn't want their kids to learn about gay marriage in school, I ask you: how much does marriage feature in the curriculum currently? Pretty much not at all.


Okay, I think you're all sick of politics now, so I think I'm done with the political posts. Back to the usual tripe!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the whole "it will be taught in schools" argument. Um, NOWHERE in the state curriculum standards does it say that "students will know the different kinds of families." We don't sit down with the little ones during calendar time say, "ok, today we are going to learn about the nuclear family. Tomorrow we will learn about families with a step mom, dad, half sisters, and step brothers." No. It's ridiculous. But I suppose I'm preaching to the choir here...

-S

Teacher Anonymous said...

Tru dat.

In the end, though, I think gay marriage will be legal in the next 10 years. In the 8 years between Prop. 22 and Prop. 8, people voting against gay marriage dropped from 61% to 52%, so I think it is only a matter of time before a voting majority approves of gay marriage (particularly as the older, more conservative part of the electorate is replaced by younger, more gay-tolerant voters). It is amazing how disagreements are settled by death. :)

Anonymous said...

Haha, I never thought about the death factor, but it's totally true.

-S