8 Feet Under / 8-5-10

Prop 8 died yesterday. Let's all have a moment of silen - nah, screw it. Instead? Celebration!

I can scarcely contain my glee. Not only does the invalidation of Prop 8 open up the door for hot steamy girl-on-girl action to legally become "not tonight Greta, I have a headache," but it also sticks it to the fundamentalist crowd, and that's wholly satisfying. (Get it? Get it?)

There's a point on the horizon, and we're aiming for it. This may be the scenic route, but keep in mind I'm going somewhere here. Just not quickly.

I'm gratified by this result. Prop 8 was the public's attempt to bypass the courts and mete out civil rights by majority vote, and that's a good idea, oh, never.

But why am I, and by extension, bunches of other Straight-Americans (oh yes, we liberal PC watchdogs can hyphenate ANYTHING), so pumped up that same-sex marriage rebecame legal in California? Most of us are not going to ditch our families this weekend, road-trip it down to San Francisco, and marry the first person on the street who matches our gender.

I/We are excited that America is living up to its ideals. Like equal protection under the law. Like the same civil rights applying to all non-felonious citizens. Like allowing two adults who love each other to express their love. (So OK, the third one isn't expressly mentioned in the Constitution or Declaration of F-U-Great-Britain, and I freely admit it's a controversial statement, but the pursuit of happiness is an ideal, whereas the "pursuit-of-all-happiness-EXCEPT-romantic-love" is somewhat less of an ideal.)

In case you're wondering, I'm going to gloss over the fact that SSM has not yet been re-instated in California, as the courts would prefer to see some closure on this issue from the Supreme Court (which may not even take the case) before granting marriage licenses to homosexuals again, and as the judge presiding in the case issued a stay keeping Prop 8 in effect for an undetermined period of time. Hey, I'll take the victories where I can get them.

Anyway, the point tonight is, why should a hetero guy care whether or not a bunch of gays can marry? I've actually been asked that question. And I usually answer with some variant of the paragraph up there earlier, the one about ideals.

But just as importantly, I'm really growing weary of all the hate. All the exact same arguments that people made for denying marriage to interracial couples have resurfaced in the fight for SSM. All the ugly views of gays as a subhuman species bubble up to the surface, and they make me angry. I've had gay friends, gay co-workers, gay bosses, and the fact that a large group of people wants them to be unhappy for reasons of sexual orientation... that boils my blood, and I will fight that crowd whenever the opportunity presents itself.

It's the right thing to allow an adult to love the adult of his or her choice. It's an ideal worth taking a stand for. We already fought the slavery battles, the race-related civil rights battles, the women's suffrage battles. Those are done and won. But this one remains. I'd just as soon be on the side of the good guys this time around.

P.S. The judge who ruled Prop 8 must go? He's a conservative, appointed by Reagan. He is.