Sunday, November 9, 2008

Prop. 8 protesters target Mormon temple in Westwood - Los Angeles Times

Prop. 8 protesters target Mormon temple in Westwood - Los Angeles Times

I just had a very long talk with a friend of mine about the protests due to the passage of proposition eight and the involvement of the Mormon church has had in promoting its passage. My friend was very upset with this and thought that this was very hypocritical of the gay community. I confess I really wasn't aware of this until he pointed it out. He believes that anyone should be able to express her opinion publicly if necessary without it being called hate speech. Personally I think that the gay community is looking for a scapegoat because they were not able to overturn proposition eight.

Here in Wisconsin when Action Wisconsin was first formed I was privileged to be on its board of directors and was able to voice my opinion on gay-rights issues within our state. Prior to this time gays and lesbians in Wisconsin were looking to get their foot in the door and trying to get partner benefits past in major metropolitan areas such as Milwaukee and Madison. After some struggle we were able to get some of these domestic partnership benefits passed both in the Milwaukee and Madison, but not as many as we would have liked. Many gays and lesbians within the state of Wisconsin were not happy with this and were claiming that we were second class citizens and that we should have full equal rights under the laws. They believed that getting partnership benefits would be one of the first steps to us getting our foot in the door for full inclusion. Some, I believe decided to rush headlong into the fray and push for all the rights under the law that heterosexual marriage would give and therefore supposedly give us equal status and full inclusion along with the government's blessing. Unfortunately I tried to point out to them that going for complete inclusion via marriage would be stirring up a hornets nest with the religious right. Instead they did not want to listen and went forward with their quest for complete inclusion and equal rights under marriage.

How wrong they could be. Indeed they did stir up a hornets nest within the religious communities and the likes we have never seen. The faith based community staunchly held the belief that marriage should only be between one man and one woman, not two men or two women. The gay and lesbian community spent thousands and possibly millions of dollars beinging their cases to court in order to force states to recognize gay marriage. Faith based communities including the religious right became incensed at this and worked feverishly to change the constitution to ban gay marriage, which for the most part was successful. Not only do we lose the right to gay marriage but also the constitutions and laws of the states of the United States were changed to prohibit gay marriage saying that only one man and one woman can be considered in the process of marriage. Now in 2008 comes a presidential election along with proposition eight in California which would ban gay marriage within that state. Many churches including the Mormon church encouraged their members to get out the vote in order to get proposition eight passed, which of course it did, and now the gay community is looking for a scapegoat to blame because of their failure to overturn this referendum.

Personally I do not see what all the fuss is all about because I for one do not want anything to do with heterosexual marriage in any shape manner or form. I don't like the idea of being homogenized into society and having anyone including gays and lesbians telling me that we are just like them. On the contrary we are not just like them and we never will be. This is one of the reasons why I am against marriage, because it is so much a part of the greater heterosexual community. I am not and never have been a second class citizen and no one is going to tell me anything different. As far as I am concerned I am a sovereign individual and I do not need the blessing of the government to be bestowed upon myself or my partner should we decide to enter into a state of matrimony. I only answer to one law and that law comes from God and not from some government. Should I ever find a partner I definitely want the blessings of the church to be bestowed upon us, but I do not want the government to intervene in any shape manner or form. The only things I want are basic benefits afforded to myself and my partner such as hospital visitation and the right of my partner to inherit whatever I so choose when I pass on. And as far as I'm concerned everything else is gravy. Like a bumper sticker I used to have on my car which said "God bless the IRS, if it wasn't for them I'd be filthy rich." I don't know about you but I think this whole thing is just a little stupid. Any thoughts that you may have would be greatly appreciated.