Equal Rights for ALL PEOPLE - the Marriage Debate

It's an important and highly polarizing day in our country's rich and demented history.  A day where arguments are being heard in the Supreme Court on the "Equal Rights in Marriage" legal battles.  This brings one of my favorite men (in history), and his quotes to mind:

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

So my friends, IF you stand for equal rights (of all human beings) under the law, today, trumpet out that support for our friends who are being repressed, whether those who repress have the moral right, a religious stand, or legal oppression on their side.  Reading some of their arguments... 

"if we allow gays to marry, what's next?  We'll have to allow incest, polygamy and bestiality to become equal under the law."  This statement is so ignorant and so abominable that I found myself laughing in disbelief and disgust.

I have all the room in the world for you to have your perspective and opinion on this topic, and every other topic on religion, spirituality, politics and lifestyle.  UP TO AND UNTIL you try to impose that viewpoint, legally, on people you don't know, thereby stripping them of a basic human right.

TO THOSE I KNOW IN THIS CATEGORY: To me, you're no different than a bigot and racist in the south, treating a black American like they are second class.  You're a misogynist who thinks women don't deserve an equal voice or equal pay.  Please, find your way to make a graceful exit from my life because this HUMAN RIGHTS debate is one of the places I draw a hard line in the sand.

I love her (we're married). I love him, yet we CAN'T marry?

TO THOSE WHO ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHT TO MARRY: I stand with you.  NOT behind you, but by your side. My wife, Kate, does too.  We aren't going to put down our bullhorns, and we're not ever going to back down from what amounts to a grown up version of "school yard bullies".  We believe that in time, the truth and love ALWAYS prevail...


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MY ORIGINAL PROP 8 BLOG FROM NOVEMBER 2008
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"Judge not, lest ye be judged."

MY INVITATION and REQUEST is that you SOUND OFF on this POST (if you stopped by to READ it)...

This is an old blog (from November of 2008). It was inspired by an old friend of mine, Laura, who was my date for the Junior Prom in high school. Laura and I seldom saw eye to eye on things, but we always seemed to have a great respect for the others (at times passionate) views. We both have lived (or at least tried to live) lives of love and tolerance. This NOTE is in response to a letter she wrote to everyone, but seemed to be directed at many in the Church of LDS. One piece of the note really struck a nerve with me...

She wrote how in pushing for PROP 8 (in California) to pass, how "the church is trying to help with the initiative".

This is the part I have the BIGGEST problem with. "Separation of CHURCH and STATE" is lost in this whole thing. If churches are going to get involved in politics, then the slippery slope we are on is having the government get involved in which religions are acceptable and which are not.

Those on the "moral right" both in the LDS and devout Christian churches have me incredibly introspective and sad on a day I should be praising God and celebrating Obama's victory. I praise God for this lesson, today. I send my love to those friends of mine who have done nothing wrong here other than BEING BORN GAY, and I know that a day soon will come when we will actually LIVE that "all people are created EQUAL in the eyes of God".

I have nothing that truly encompasses how I feel about this...

Unbelievable.

Those who have stood AGAINST another human's CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to marry, even when a California supreme court ruled in it's favor, are living their lives in a very vain righteousness. Ye may judge today, and BE the one judged tomorrow.

Some have said to me, "with Obama in office and a Democratic Senate and House" this will be short lived. That MAY be true. But maybe not! And I don't think it's acceptable that ANYONE live ONE YEAR even without Constitutional RIGHTS!

Take even ONE constitutional right away, JUST ONE, that you hold deeply dear, then tell yourself, "well, I only have to live this way for one year." It is unacceptable.

There will be an uprising against this. The saddest part is it will sour people towards MANY churches. When you consider that "churchgoing" individuals voted approximately 84% FOR Prop 8 and 16% AGAINST it, well, exactly what type of "love and tolerance" are these churches preaching?

I am a child of God. I have a strong relationship with my creator, our creator, and I am just shaking my head over this one.

THOSE who do NOT believe in "gay marriage" aren't truly affected by it. The website created for the prop... www.ProtectMarriage.com is SO offensive to me, it makes me want to stand in front of the churches who FUNDED this thing with a sign that says, "DISCRIMINATION is a SIN in the eyes of GOD!" Or, even better, another sign that says, "this church funds discrimination".

Gay people, time to take your seat where you belong, on the BACK of the BUS. It's a new "pre-1955" for homosexual individuals. How is THIS type of discrimination acceptable some 50+ years after Rosa Parks took her stand? Is it going to take another 50-100 years before we have a gay president? This can not be allowed to stand, in California, Arizona and Arkansas (where gay-couples can no longer adopt children, and many hetero Arkansas couples are setting the standard for parenting in our fine country).

I am still spinning over this one. Unreal.