because it bears repeating...

As a resident of CA, I am ashamed of the passage of Prop 8. I know people who supported it, and I've heard their reasons, and I have to say they've been suckered. The people I know didn't vote yes because they hate gay people, or even because they truly wanted to deny them any rights. They voted out of fear.

I've had a blog about this stewing in my head, but I could not find all the words I wanted. I have been a reader of this blog for a while now, and he provided me with the missing link. Like the man in the video, I am not gay, no one that I know of in my family is gay, and I can count my gay friends on one hand. However, I am APPALLED that this passed. Horrified.

I know people who voted for this, and for them it wasn't an anti-gay vote so much as a vote of fear. Did you watch the campaign for this prop? They told us that if we allowed it to fail, our kids would be exposed in school to the gay lifestyle at an early age and we would have no power as parents to object to this. They would be forced to go to gay wedding chapels, and read gay literature, and we would have to sit idly by and let it happen. It was a vote of fear, and these people got suckered. I've heard "If it were written differently, so that our rights as parents were protected too, I would have voted against it." I have heard "I don't have a problem with with gay people, but parents are allowed to deny their kids rights to other field trips, and they have no say in Mass, and I don't want it to be like that here." It became more about parents' rights than gay rights, and otherwise intellegent, thoughtful, caring people were hoodwinked into believing that they'd be the target of a massive gay propoganda campaign to turn everyone gay, and it pisses me off. It was a dirty trick by the people who started the campaign. I wish that the other side had beem more organized and well-funded to counter this tactic.

There's also the argument, "They have all the same legal rights as married couples, so what difference does it make?" What difference indeed. Maybe we should just absolve all marriages, since apparently the tax break is really all that matters. That's like telling a woman who just miscarried "At least you can get pregnant." It's only half the story, and not the most important part.

This video says what I've been trying to say so much more eloquently than I could say it. I'm posting it to my blog as well, because it bears repeating.

And I wonder how many parents, oh-so-concerned about their rights and the rights of their children, will come to be ashamed of their vote when their own kids grow up to be gay. How could I look my son in the eye if I supported this proposition in the name of preserving my rights and his, and he was someday denied the right to marry the man he loved because of it?