Just One More Reason Why 'I Love NY!'

In the wake of the "coup" in the New York Senate we are all left with an uneasy feeling that many of our older generation remembers from the days of the mob and 'real' corrupt politics.  In addition many are left wondering what now? What is going to happen with the agenda of the Democratic party?  

One particular bit of legislation comes to mind, that of the gay marriage bill introduced by Governor Paterson not long ago.    We have been lucky enough to see the Assembly again pass the bill with flying colors, but have all been waiting worriedly to see what the Republicans, which held a much stronger minority in the Senate would do with the bill. Now the Republicans have taken over again, and we are left with the question of whether the bill will even make it to the podium to be voted on. While the new president of the Senate, Pedro Espada (one of the two guys who jumped ship) is a co-sponsor of the bill, Dean Skelos (the returning majority leader) is against it. Unfortunately if this quote taken by the Observer Dispatch is anything to go on, we're back on for a long fight, all over again.

“Time spent on issues such as gay marriage would have been better spent on solving the state’s fiscal problems.  Maybe now they can extend the session so they can get some real work done,”

This is a quote from the Oneida County Republican Chairman. This quote is ridiculous all over, but strikes me badly for two main reasons:

1. It's Funny the Republicans have been in power for 40 years, but the Democrats get blamed for not fixing the state's fiscal policy in the six months that they have been in power. (Admittedly, they weren't doing all that great though.)
   
2. (More importantly) I find it slightly absurd that a civil rights vote such as that for gay marriage is considered so unimportant that interrupting further deliberation on a monotonously failing fiscal policy is considered a hindrance to “real work.”

I understand that it is a hard concept to grasp for some people, but there are issues that are more important than money. If we could just get the senators to vote under the basis of equal rights, and remind them that RELIGION and TRADITION should have no part in law, they could actually protect a minority and get back to misusing our tax dollars, and making faux-promises to make things better for tomorrow, before they knew it.

But they're right, who are we New York Citizens to ask for equality? It's all about them right? They're flim flamming around figuring out who's going to be in power, when a minority is continuing to be oppressed against their strong protest for equality.

Shame on you gays, sit down and shut up, we need to be thinking about fiscal policy! Don't you realize we're in a recession?

Where is our Brown vs. Board?

There is no shortage of people who have drawn the parallel between the separate but equal system of the post Civil War era and the current plight of the gay couples being offered civil union which "hold all the same rights and powers as marriage" while withholding actual marriage from them.  If they deserve all the same rights, then why must they be separated?

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55 years have passed since "separate but equal" was a legal standard for black and white people.  How is it that any court today could possibly decide against gay marriage while completely barring from their decision making one of the most important and relevant cases the Supreme Court has ever seen?  We need a new Brown vs. Board, and we shouldn't have to wait any longer.

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It is quite shameful that Proposition 8 has passed by the 52% majority of California voters, but what is really shameful is the California Supreme Court's 180 degree turn-around in supporting the limit on marriage.  Only last year it was this same court that opened up gay marriage, and now it's Justices don't even stand up in opposition when the door is slammed shut once again.

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It was up to the Supreme Court to control the tyranny of the majority, and they failed miserably.

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Now we New Yorkers must hope that our State Senators will follow on the coat tails of Vermont, Iowa, Connecticut, and Maine and ignore the sinking of California into the ol' south when deciding our own marriage policy.

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I apologize for the spacing, blogger is messing with me today.

A Reciprocating Saw Tearing Through California

I mentioned before in my Prop 8: Enough Already! entry that prior to this past election day gay marriage had been shifted back and forth in legality six times.  Well thanks to a conservative, religious and traditionalist population, the lucky gays in California have been blessed with lucky number seven.  All the gays in California should walk into as many churches as you can and shake hands with everyone, thank them for dragging you back and forth like a rag doll.

I prophetized in that entry that if Prop 8 was enacted into law that within eight years the courts would again take up the case and possibly pull the power back to the side of the gays. Remove eight years, insert two weeks and I was EXACTLY right. 

Yes at the urging of Attorney General and Former Governor Jerry Brown (his aura always smiles and never frowns [bonus points if you get that]) the supreme court is again going to take up the gay marriage question.  The case is slotted for March and will answer the question of whether this was a proper use of an initiative. Unfortunately all gay marriages remaining on hold at least until a decision is made.

It is painfully sad and a little scary that this battle has come to this.  We are back to the courts, how many times can this go back and forth?  It can not be healthy for the legislature and now the people to be fighting for control of the constitution with the supreme court.  Is this not asking for a breakdown of democracy in the state of California? Should we have written rules as to when one branch of the government supersedes the others?

It is hard for me to be unbiased in weighing whether the Supreme Court should be again looking at this case, because I have a direct hope for an outcome that can only come from them doing so.  I know that if Prop 8 had been voted down, and the supporters of it had proceeded to bring the case to court I would be extremely annoyed, but yet I'm advocating just that for my side.

The only way that I can defend this belief is in saying, as I have in the before mentioned entry, that this is a case best left to the courts.  The reason being that it is a case of extending the rights of a minority against the tyranny of the majority.  It was wrong for the majority to hold a popular vote against a minority in the first place, therefore their taking it to court would be furthering the wrong.

I was going to write more about the reasons that this was a case best left to the courts, but I found this article by Kermit Roosevelt which makes my arguments seem like the fourth grade abridged version. Here is a taste:

"Regardless of where you stand on same-sex marriage, what's troubling
for US citizens in the California case is the idea that an equality
guarantee could not be effectively enforced against the will of a
majority. The point of such a guarantee is precisely to protect
minorities from discrimination at the hands of a majority."

I encourage you all to read the article, it gives quite a compelling argument for the supreme court intervention.

Write to Marry Day

*UPDATE* Contributed posts are up


I just wanted to pass along a some information I found at the Caffection blog about Write to Marry Day. This is an organized write-in of anyone interested in blogging against Proposition 8 in California. If you write or have written a blog against prop 8 before October 29 you can submit it at Mombian and together we can help show Californians why this proposal is despicable.

In related news the New York Times and Fox News (links are to the articles not main sites)each printed articles Sunday about the extreme attention (and $$$) this California Proposition is getting state, nation, and international wide.

I'm feeling a little short-winded tonight so I'll just leave it at: good reads, dig in. Even the Fox News one, hell even they can put out a fairly unbiased piece of news occasionally.

Proposition 8: Enough Already!

The California gay community has some of the strongest legal power in the country over their right to marry, however they have been dragged back and forth through the dirt more times than in any other state. The legal right for them to marry has been given to, and taken back from them, around six times. Five of which have been since 1977.

It is great to see that Apple and Google have stepped up to the plate in opposition to Prop 8. But let's be honest, it is quite sad that they even have to.

Prop 8 in essence does the same thing that Prop 22 did back in 2000. Prop 22 was found to be unconstitutional by the California Supreme Court in May 2008. So just why are we going in circles? Should we expect that if Prop 8 gets passed on the ballot next month that the supreme court will come around in the next eight years and also find it unconstitutional? It seems as though at some point we need to draw the line on wasting all this time and money.

It is in my opinion that this is an issue best left for the Supreme Court. Obviously I have a biased view as I am supportive of gay couples right to marry, but the purpose of the Court system is better suited for this kind of decision. Voter initiatives and congressional votes serve the purpose of keeping the government running as a democracy. Unfortunately, in allowing for majority rule, sometimes the minority gets stepped on a little too much. In these cases, which include the current, the court system is a much better place to determine constitutionality.

UCLA estimates that over 11,000 gay couples have been married since the floodgates were opened in May until mid September. God hasn't sank it out of spite yet, so why not just leave the gays alone?

All Americans need to get behind the 'anti-anti-gay marriage movement' and help get prop 8 voted down. Even if the rest of us in the other 49 can't make the vote we need to make it clear that this proposition is a terrible thing. As I have said before, only 4% of the United States allows for gay marriage (that's two states for you math buffs), losing California would be a great loss to the cause.

See also my earlier, mostly relevant blog: The Hypocrites Dilemma

Homosexuality and Marriage

Why are gay people subjected to so much shit in this country and all over the world (basically). Homophobia...yeah so there's people out there that are AFRAID of gay people. Now they play off that they're big and tough, but they are afraid of these people who they claim are weak. Am i missing something? First of all I God damn well know at some point in every one of these assholes lives they have had a homosexual thought. But they are so fucking afraid of being gay that they want to condemn anyone who is, like its fucking contagious. People need to open their fucking eyes, no, its not contagious, really, I'd have it by now. People need to stop being so afraid of it, so what if you find out your gay, suppressing it isn't going to help, and hating everyone that is isn't suppressing it, isn't either.

I'm afraid of homophobes. Anyone who can hate the nicest group of people in society should be feared because well there's some serious issues going on there.

"the bible says you can't be gay" The section that everyone so lovingly brings up is from Leviticus, if you look a little deeper you can find some other rules from this section too. 1. It is a sin to eat pork. 2. It is perfectly acceptable to own slaves, as long as their from another country.3. You are not allowed to trim your hair or beard 4.You cant mix fabrics. After reading the rest of Leviticus it seems as tho this evidence is shot to hell. And how about that whole "love thy neighbor" thing, can we just forget about that because were doing "God's work"?

Many people will probably disagree with me, but i don't really care. Organized religion is the Antichrist. Yup, plain and simple. It breeds hate and ignorance. Isn't that exactly the opposite of your Jesus' teachings? Wasn't he a pacifist? Seems kinda ironic that more people have died in his name than for any other man who has ever lived, including Hitler...

Gay people should not be able to get married, and here is why I think that: churches are just not interested in marrying gays. So that just leaves the government to marry them, well the government shouldn't be able to marry anyone, marriage is a religion based institution therefore the government has no right sticking its nose in it. This is where civil unions come in, different name, same results, they are a legal contract between two individuals, not all that mushy kissing stuff. Married couples in the church apply for a civil unions from the government, therefore still receive all the benefits married couples receive now*.

**Update: I meant this more as a "best case scenario" as to how marriage legislation should work. However it would be much harder to completely change the law of civil marriage in order to create only Civil Unions in the eyes of the government than to just legalize gay marriage. In addition this would be a costly solution to a mostly aesthetic problem. In the real world I fully support the right for gay couples to be married.**

The problem of allowing Civil Unions according to the opponents is that it will cost us much more in taxes and social security if we widen the eligibility to support so many more people with social security and other federal benefits. Well gay couples should be allowed the same benefits I'll get if I ever get retarded and get "married", why not? If they're paying into the system they should get protected in the same way.

Jesus was a communist, Jesus was a Pacifist...