California Proposition 8, ‘doesn’t go far enough’
p2pnet news view | Freedom:- Who cares if gays want to marry, it doesn’t change my relationship with my wife.
Who cares if gays want to adopt children, as long as those children are loved.
Who cares? Do you? Feeling superior, are we?
Well isn’t that special?
The line’s are from Lenny Kravitz, quoted by a p2pnet reader in our story on Proposition 8, the 2008 California General Election ballot which says same-sex couples can’t marry.
Ellen DeGeneres, wed to Portia de Rossi, said this saddened her “beyond belief”.
Now, “Okay. So Prop 8 passed,” says Melissa Etheridge in The Daily Beast, going on »»»
Alright, I get it. 51% of you think that I am a second class citizen. Alright then. So my wife, uh I mean, roommate? Girlfriend? Special lady friend? You are gonna have to help me here because I am not sure what to call her now. Anyways, she and I are not allowed the same right under the state constitution as any other citizen. Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen.
You mean (gasp) not pay state taxes? Heresy!
Right, says Etheridge, “I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books.”
So, “Okay,” she says. Cool. “I don’t mean to get too personal here but there is a lot I can do with the extra half a million dollars that I will be keeping instead of handing it over to the state of California.
“Oh, and I am sure Ellen will be a little excited to keep her bazillion bucks that she pays in taxes too. Wow, come to think of it, there are quite a few of us fortunate gay folks that will be having some extra cash this year.”
Recession? What recession? “We’re gay!” – declares Etheridge.
“I am sure there will be a little box on the tax forms now single, married, divorced, gay, check here if you are gay, yeah, that’s not so bad. Of course all of the waiters and hairdressers and UPS workers and gym teachers and such, they won’t have to pay their taxes either.”
‘When Californians move in, all hell breaks loose’
But the ban on same-sex marriage in California doesn’t go far enough, writes John Kelso in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer with Austin, Texas, as the place-line.
“How about a Texas-imposed ban on all Californians having sex?” – he suggests. After all, “Look at what happens when Californians have sex. You just get more Californians. Then they all move to Austin, vente becomes a drink size, and fruit becomes a side order.”
This may not sound too neighborly, he says continuing »»»
See, the trouble is that Californians tend to migrate. When things get too expensive for them out there, they move here, buy an affordable home and bring their wacky ways with them.
And it all goes from Hondo to condo.
So one way to cut down on these people sucking the culture out of our state is to make them keep their hands to themselves.
Now, one of the good things about same-sex Californians having sex is that it doesn’t lead to, you know, more Californians. So maybe the ban I’m proposing should allow sex for same-sex Californians only. Since they’re not the ones adding to the ongoing traffic jam on MoPac.
See, when Californians move in, all hell breaks loose. You folks in Austin, look around you. Your restaurants are now littered with bait offerings. Seafood items you used to buy cheap in a plastic baggie at a tackle shop for when the redfish start running now show up on rice with wasabi and a bill for $100, plus tip.
Think about it. Before the Californians started moving here, you saw cowboy hats regularly in Austin. Now the only time you see a Resistol downtown is when some gal named Ruthie goes to Halloween on Sixth Street dressed as George Straight. I mean George Strait .
You’re wondering how you get opposite-sex Californians to stop having sex. Easy. Assign a police officer with a garden hose to each Californian. This would also help the economy by increasing sales at Home Depot.
Adds Etheridge:
“Even though we could be married in Mass. or Conn, Canada, Holland, Spain and a handful of other countries, this is our home. This is where we work and play and raise our families. We will not rest until we have the full rights of any other citizen. It is that simple, no fearful vote will ever stop us, that is not the American way.
“Come to think of it, I should get a federal tax break too …..”
can’t marry – DeGeneres ’saddened beyond belief’: Proposition 8, November 6, 2008
The Daily Beast – You Can Forget My Taxes, October 29, 2008
Seattle Post-Intelligencer – California trying to preserve ‘normal’ image, November 7, 2008
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November 8th, 2008 at 11:00 am
This used to be one of my favourite places but I will be staying away from now on. California Proposition 8, ‘doesn’t go far enough’ you say. But now YOU have now too far. Homosexuals are deviants and that is all there is too it.
November 8th, 2008 at 11:23 am
I think we’ve lost our focus a bit. Just a bit. We’ve got to stay focused on what we believe in. P2p filesharing.
But as far as prop 8 is concerned, whether they like it or not, the people have casted their vote, and what’s done is done. Ok. Fine. But the election is over now. Can we please move on!
November 8th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Next up: laws that recognize “marriage” to pets, children, and blow-up dolls.
When that happens, Leona Helmsley’s dog will become one popular pooch!
Government-enforced “Affirmative action” policies for sexual “deviants” might not be very far off. If it helps me get a job, promotion, or entry into law school, I won’t hesitate to check off that box on the application form. I’d have a much harder time pulling off a claim to be Black (shoe polish, anyone?) but who’s going to know if I were to lie about being gay?
November 8th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I would like to know the opions of gays whether someone can have multiple wives or husbands? Or if 2 14 year olds want to marry? Age descrimination? Whether people like it or not most laws are based on some sort or moral or religious belief. Maybe in the future some things will be more accepted.
People saying I have the right to do something cause everyone is equal, who says everyone is equal.
At least you still live in a country that at least tolerates it and not imprisons you like some counties do.
How many years ago were blacks not accepted and women concidered second class? Change doesn’t happen overnight.
November 8th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Wow, this is fascinating to watch.
1. The vast majority of you (rightly) don’t give two liquidy shits about “intellectual property” — at least as it’s constituted now. Unfortunately, you still seem to believe (despite all of the evidence to the contrary) that the State has a legitimate “role” to play by granting heterosexual couples “special rights”. You also believe that homosexuality is “deviant” — despite the fact that it has existed in every culture, and very few religious traditions outside of the Abrahamic monotheist variety have had anything negative to say about it.
So pony up, Fundie-boys: how many of you (gasp!) engaged in “premarital” sex with your girlfriend? How many of you “lived together” before marriage? How many of you (if you’re “religious” in the way that you’ve tacitly claimed to be) would approve of concubinage? Polygamy was fully sanctioned by the Old Testament, folks — so it’s really glaringly odd to see “Bible-believing Christians” cop such an attitude in regard to homosexual “abomination”.
What’s next? Some yahoo defending laws against “miscegenation?”
Sad day for the p2p scene when those demonized as “pirates” feel free to demonize others.
November 8th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Marriage was traditionally a contract between two families, and the state (if one even existed at all) was irrelevant.
In Western society today, it’s just the reverse, with marriage being a contract between the state and the couple only, with the families’ wishes having no bearing.
In many societies around the world, girls routinely get married at the age of 15 or 16 (sometimes even younger) and often to older husbands, but as with polygamy, this is considered a serious crime here in the US. (Just look at what happened to those Mormon fundamentalists in Texas earlier this year.)
Funny that in the US, a teenage marriage or a 2nd wife is a crime, but not a homosexual union – while in Saudi Arabia, it’s the exact opposite. Same situation with adult-pornography and copyright laws.
November 8th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
“It is that simple, no fearful vote will ever stop us, that is not the American way.”
-Yeah, because “voting” and decision by majority aren’t American ways.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:15 am
During the 2000 election, 40% of voters in Alabama voted against the legal recognition of interracial marriage. Two years earlier it was 38% voting against interracial marriage in South Carolina.
In 1967 the “activist courts” “legislated from the bench” imposing interracial marriage against the Democratic Majority will at the time. There was overwhelming 72% Democratic Majority vote against it, to protect the traditional institution of marriage against interracial marriages. Some states it still nearly have a Democratic Majority will to ban interracial marriage.
Mr Reader’s Write you were actually right when you said “voting and decision by majority aren’t American ways” when it comes to civil rights. Under the Constitution the law cannot discriminate between people on the basis of race gender or religion. Democratic Majority vote doesn’t matter. It is impossible to violate the US Constitution with some 51% Democratic Majority vote. Any such majority vote law is invalid null and void. Any such majority vote state constitutional amendment is invalid null and void. California’s prop-8 is invalid null and void.
Civil law granting civil marriage licenses cannot examine the races of marriage applicants when deciding weather to grant or deny such civil licenses. The constitution mandates equal treatment under the law. If the law grants civil marriage to a white couple then it has no valid means to deny an otherwise identical interracial couple that identical civil marriage.
Civil law granting civil marriage licenses cannot examine the religions of marriage applicants when deciding weather to grant or deny such civil licenses. The constitution mandates equal treatment under the law. If the law grants civil marriage to a Christian couple then it has no valid means to deny an otherwise identical interfaith couple that identical civil marriage.
Civil law granting civil marriage licenses cannot examine the genders of marriage applicants when deciding weather to grant or deny such civil licenses. The constitution mandates equal treatment under the law. If the law grants civil marriage to a mixed gender couple then it has no valid means to deny an otherwise identical same gender couple that identical civil marriage.
And the really sad part is that not so long after winning equal race-based civil rights to marriage for themselves, it’s the BLACK community voting 70% to deny equal gender-based civil rights in marriage. After finally removing the examination and discrimination of race in the law, perpetuating the examination and discrimination of gender in the law. Sad, ironic, and despicable.
And as for the people ranting about marrying pets and polygamy and pedophilia, get a clue, it’s a ridiculous invalid argument. It *is* unconstitutional for the law to discriminate on the basis of race, it *is* unconstitutional for the law to discriminate on the basis of gender, it *is* unconstitutional for the law to discriminate on the basis of religion. It is *not* unconstitutional for the law to discriminate the difference between people and animals. A cow does not have any right to vote, nor to get married. It is *not* unconstitutional for the law to discriminate the difference between children and adults. Children do not have any right to vote, nor to get married. It is *not* unconstitutional for the law to discriminate the difference between a-person and multiple-people.
All of the arguments and battles are moot, fighting a war that is already decided. The younger generation public opinion is overwhelmingly in favor of equal civil rights gay marriage. Opposition is in the older generation, and primarily amongst senior citizens. The simple fact is that no force on earth can stand against a generational shift. Interracial marriage opponents and gay marriage opponents can say “over my dead body”, and they are not far wrong. Sooner or later the younger generation position WILL win, even if they have to bury the older generation to do it. This issue is following the exact same course interracial marriage took. The younger generation overwhelmingly supported interracial marriage, the older generation racists dead and dying every day. Homophobe bigots are aging and dying every day.
National public opinion on interracial marriage shifted by almost 1% per year. National public opinion on gay marriage is shifting by almost 2% per year, twice as fast. Acceptance of gay unions is already way higher than acceptance of interracial marriage was when the Supreme Court nationally legalized it in 1967. It will be the democratic majority vote position in California in about a year. It will be the democratic majority vote position Nationally before the next presidential election rolls back around. It’s over. Opinions are shifting in favor as people get used to the new idea, and those who are most opposed are the senior citizens being buried day by day. It’s over.
November 9th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Gee, no gay marriage in California! I feel much safer now.
Let’s see the lawmakers get tuff with the gangs and the illegal immigrants and the morons who lead police on high speed chases!
I didn’t think so…
November 9th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
How about we leave it like this, ya’ll. Assuming consenting adults, sound minds, lack of duress, etc., etc. : You don’t tell me who I can marry and I won’t tell you who you can marry. Seems fair to me.
November 10th, 2008 at 1:18 am
Just a fact, while the bible says Being gay is wrong, it says slavery is alright. So if you are homophobiac becuase the bible, you must therefore be pro slavery to avoid being a hypocrite.
November 10th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
So, what’s your point, Anon? Not that your characterization of the Bible is either accurate or anything more than a one-dimensional image of it. All the same, what’s your point? Some people need looking after to keep them busy, otherwise they’d end up living in the mud and never inventing anything or domesticating any animals. . .oh wait. . .
And the “can’t we all just get along” guy: you can play house with whomever you want, but you don’t get to call that marriage and ignore thousands of years of human history and tradition. Who do you think you are?
We voted. It’s done. Get over it or leave. Or both.
November 11th, 2008 at 5:02 am
“hahah Says:
November 10th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
So, what’s your point, Anon? Not that your characterization of the Bible is either accurate or anything more than a one-dimensional image of it. All the same, what’s your point? Some people need looking after to keep them busy, otherwise they’d end up living in the mud and never inventing anything or domesticating any animals. . .oh wait. . .
And the “can’t we all just get along” guy: you can play house with whomever you want, but you don’t get to call that marriage and ignore thousands of years of human history and tradition. Who do you think you are?
We voted. It’s done. Get over it or leave. Or both.”
Hang on a minute…. thousands of years of human history? Marrige is actually that old? I don’t belive it. Marriage is about as old as christianity. So about 2000 years if my calculations are correct. And it started in Greece and Rome. The greeks gave us some amazing stuff. Good idea’s, phlisophy to name a few. Those and same sex relationships.
GASP… the greeks had gay people among them. And they invented marriage. OH NO. Thousands of years of misinterpeted shit. DAMN. So hahah how does your sanctimonius bullshit smell now?