Why Proposition 8 still pisses me off

Prop 8 came and went. I don't even live in California. One would think that I could care less but that would never be further from the truth. Prop 8 reminded me of the small persecutions that began against the gay community in early Nazi Germany: a time when there were night clubs and drag shows for gay people, when there were gay and lesbian community centers and a huge archive of research about gay people throughout the ages. It reminded me of all these things because before Hitler came to power...

Let me digress for a moment. I am NOT comparing Christians to Nazis, or Mormons to Nazis - I don't think the President of the Mormon Church is anything like Hitler. I am sure that he - along with the leaders of the religious groups who so vocally oppose gay people's every grasp for equality - is a wise, compassionate and deeply caring individual.

So, before Hitler came to power gay people had these things. We had freedom of movement, we could gather, we could fall in love; we knew our past much better than we do now. Just like in California: for a brief time we had something. We had something that many of us never thought we would have. I cannot begin to describe to you what that feels like. For straight people growing up and getting married is just so everyday that I imagine many straights take it for granted. For gay people we knew we would grow up and not be allowed to get married and then for some reason somehow we were suddenly able to do this thing that we were told was not for us. It was as if a heavy weight was lifted off of us, it was like standing outside on a cold rainy day and having the sun suddenly break through the clouds.

Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the sun was gone again and the clouds were back. The weight was placed back on our hearts - all the more heavy now because of its recent absence. Millions of gay Americans felt a certain joy when marriage was lost, then inexplicable dread when it was taken from us. Let me be clear on this point: it was taken. Not like in other cases where voters refused to grant us this right. To never have something feels a lot different than to have something and then have it taken away. Imagine wanting to buy a car (or insert any other material dream): you can see in your mind what it must look like, what is must feel like, how it would look in your driveway, etc. Actually owning that car would be a lot different wouldn't it? When you buy a new car you look at it as you walk away, driving feels so much better than you imagined, all your neighbors stop to look at it in your driveway. Now imagine that you had the car, imagine what it must feel like to wake up one morning to find it stolen while you slept.

So we had the dream. We knew what it felt like and it felt so much better than we had imagined. Then the voters of California took it away. Oh sure they said we were equal and should be protected when they included us in their nondiscrimination clause of their constitution. But when we wanted to exercise our equality the voters decided that they didn't really mean it when they said we were equal. They told us that we were inferior, that our love was inferior, that were weren't as human as they were.

Why? I'll tell you why. Because some hate-mongering ultra-right political-savvy jerk wanted to prove himself that he could win any campaign. So what did he do? He used children as a human shield and the supporters of Prop 8 got right in line behind him. They used their children like some crazed madman uses a child to block himself from the bullets of justice. They said that the dirty, nasty, godless heathen homosexuals were going to creep into California classrooms and teach the children about sex. And outrage of outrages: we were going to start telling people that its okay to be gay!

Well I'll tell you something: its okay to be gay - and yes its okay to be straight or transgendered or anything else that God puts in your heart. But let me tell you what it’s not okay to be: a bigot, an oppressor, a liar. And God doesn't put those things in the hearts of man - the hearts of men allow them to grow and the evil in the world waters the garden from which they spring. The so called backers of Prop. 8 (lets just refer to them as cowards) used their children to protect themselves from a Supreme Court ruling (the body of the government whose job it is, among others, to protect the minority from the majority).

I imagine the courts will rule for us again. Of course there are other ways you cowards can still win this pitiful fight that is hateful to God: take our equal protection clause out of the California Constitution. I want it in writing, signed by you, that you really do think we are something lesser, I want you to write it all down then I want you to sign your name at the bottom so that the world can clearly read BIGOT.

For those who didn't really support Prop. 8 but just went to the polls and voted yes: you made a mistake. For those who voted yes or supported the measure and say you have gay friends: I can tell you that you do not. You cannot be a friend to someone’s face while you stab them in the back. The LDS church is wrong, the Catholic Church is wrong, all those who gave money to this hateful thing are wrong. Just like Hitler was wrong when he put gays and lesbians into his concentration camps, just like Hitler was wrong when he burned our archives in Berlin, just like the Boise City police were wrong in the 1950s when they rounded up dozens of gay men and held them without charges for days on end, just like the NYPD was wrong when they raided the Stonewall Inn in New York City because it was illegal for homosexuals to consume alcohol or wear clothing not appropriate for their gender. Well, we know what happened at Stonewall - I wonder how far we'll have to be pushed this time before we've had enough.