What's It To Ya?--Prop 8

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I had written anything! For a long time, I didn't think it was worth the effort, but lately, I've been feeling the urge again, so here I am. There is so much going on, and I feel the need to comment on some of them.

I was shocked when Prop 8 passed--imagine, the people of California (of all places!) voted to strip a portion of its citizens of their rights as Americans and to subject them to the worst kinds of abuses a civil system can inflict on its people. How did such a travesty happen? Because certain groups of haters (the Mormon and Catholic churches, primarily) using some pretty despicable tactics, managed to convince Californians that gay people were involved in some vast conspiracy to harm our children and to destroy our way of life and that having the right to be legally married was only the first step in this conspiracy.

The fact that Prop 8 passed shows that we haven't come as far from the Jim Crowe laws against the blacks in the South as we would like to believe. We are still as susceptible to acting on our ignorance and fear as we have ever been, and those who use that ignorance and fear to further their own hater aims have only gotten slicker and richer (the amount of money laid out by the Mormon church alone is obscene). Personally, I think it is a good thing to get this kind of crap out in the open. After all, shining a bright light into the deep, dark corners of our collective psyche is the best way to begin clearing out all the shadows that hide there. Because of Prop 8, people are starting to ask questions of themselves and of our society as a whole, and to see it for what it was--a slippery slope. If you can vote to strip one group of people of their inherent rights as Americans and as human beings, who is next, and where does it stop?

The haters claim that gays are a threat and that allowing them to get married will lead to destruction. My question is, HOW? It's a simple enough question, but I have yet to get anything close to an adequate answer. The only answers I get are quotes from Scripture and appeals to my baser nature. My response to that is this: if you call yourself a Christian but use the Old Testament to back your arguments, you have bigger things to sort out than worrying about who's marrying who. I've said this before, but I feel compelled to say it again: The Old Testament was given to the JEWS and anyone who subscribes to that set of scribblings IS A JEW. It makes as much sense as a Muslim using the Talmud instead of the Koran. So you need to get your basics right before you try to tackle anything more advanced. And to all of those who ask themselves WWJD? I can tell you he'd probably quote John 8:7 (You know, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.)

Second, using emotional appeals to win rational arguments (and anything as serious as a constitutional amendment can't be handled another way than rationally), is like bringing a knife to a gun fight. Using deceit and scare-tactics instead of proving your point with facts and evidence only shows the weakness of your position and makes me suspicious of your motives.

But the biggest question here is: WHAT'S IT TO YA? What right to do you have to go spying into other people's bedrooms, and why would you want to? What gives you the right to go around making value judgments on the way anyone else lives his or her life? Maybe you should do something about your own life before you go trying to tell anyone else how to live theirs, hmm?