Maine Gay Marriage Repeal/Prop 8 Anniversary Rallies Sweep SF, the Nation
After today's profoundly disappointing news that gay marriage was repealed in the state of Maine -- alas, unadulterated hate wins again -- rallies will be held across the country starting tonight.
To find the gay marriage rally closest to you, or to start one in your hometown, please check out and contribute to this handy Twitter feed. It has loads of up-to-the-second information.
In related news, San Francisco will have a gay marriage protest tonight, starting at 6 p.m. Check it:
What: One Struggle, One Fight
Time: 6 pm - 9pm
Location: Harvey Milk Plaza (intersection of Market and Castro Streets), SF
Date: Tonight, Nov. 4
Today also marks the one year anniversary of Prop 8, California's anti-gay marriage proposition. Sigh. But on the brighter side, as Brian Devine expertly put it, "bigots die off; it's only a matter of time." (Frank Schubert, campaign director of Stand for Marriage Maine, thankfully, doesn't look like he has much life left in him to spread further pain.)
But not all news is glum, friends. Former Miss California, professional homosexual hater, and confused free-speech advocate Carrie Prejean has a sex tape. All it cost her was a million-dollar lawsuit against Miss California USA.
Filed in News and tagged gay marriage, maine, prop 8, protest, rally
"Jesus had 2 dads"
Funny
I'll buy that sex tape, then use it to raise money for gay marriage intiatives. Plenty of people would pay to see her in compromising positions!
"Unadulterated hate" may be overstating things a little bit, Brock. I really doubt 53% of Maine voters want Gay folks to die of cancer or AIDS or whatever.
Seeing as how someone out there had to feel strongly enough to go to the trouble of getting a measure on the ballot to overturn the legislature's granting of marriage rights to same-sex couples, I'm willing to with Brock: YES, unadulterated hate was at the center of this effort and did win yesterday. Thankfully, it was a slim win that will prove temporary.
You don't have to wish death on someone to hate them, either: just as Jim Crow laws were a manifestation of hate, so are the infringements on civil rights represented by gay marriage bans.
I agree. We're not seeing unadulterated hate. We're seeing people reinforcing the current inequality while holding onto to some innate feeling that straight marriage is the best marriage. An ideal that even gay people should sit and admire.
"I don't hate gay people! I just don't want them to be able to easily access the legal protections that straight married couples have!"
So I guess African Americans living in the south weren't facing hate at all. It was merely that whites were "reinforcing the current inequality while holding onto to some innate feeling" that they were superior to black people.
I don't think that every person who voted YES in Maine hates gay people, but I doubt this initiative would have even gotten off the ground if the entirety of the 53% were merely "a little uncomfortable" with gay marriage. Hatred wears many masks and I feel perfectly confident in saying that hate was at the heart of what motivated the drive to get this measure on the ballot, if not every vote in support of it.
The sarcastic tone of my post didn't really get through, I guess.
I agree that hate is at the heart. I was just saying that many of those who are against same sex marriage don't claim hate and aren't aware of the hurt they're doing with their votes. So, I qualified that it isn't "unadulterated" but the effects of their actions are deplorable and completely in line with the intentions of that faction that does, indeed, hate gay people.
A quick flashback is in order.
1998: Maine uses its "People's Veto" referendum to veto the state legislature's recently enacted law that prevented discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing & employment.
Maine is not Mass.
The GOP figured out that the average person is a brain-dead hillbilly a long time ago, and they've used this to further their agenda. Why haven't the progressives been able to latch on to the idiot masses?
It can't be that complicated -- if you can ignorant hicks on policies which favor the wealthiest 1% of the population, I'd assume they could be sold on policies which favor the homosexual ~15% of the population.
Just sayin'.