10.30.08
Californians: please vote NO on Prop 8
Californians:
Please vote NO on Proposition 8 on Tuesday. It is a bad law that would hurt people. People I care about.
The backers of Prop 8 like to say that they are trying to “protect traditional marriage”. That’s a dogwhistle. What the Prop 8 supporters are really saying is that marriage equality is a threat to traditional gender roles, as I discussed before.
My heterosexual marriage is stronger because of exposure to a particular loving, committed gay couple, Rich and Chris. They were my housemates and landlords for four years total. I first lived with them immediately after they bought their house together — which for gay couples at the time was the event that was about as close to marriage as you could get. They had some rocky spots, would have arguments and stomp around the house mad for a few days, but they would work through it. They would negotiate in good faith and strive for win-win resolutions. They grew to understandings, made adjustments, and released preconceived notions. This was not always smooth, especially in the first year, but they ended up with a truly harmonious relationship, in a house full of laughter and love.
Their good example not only gave me courage to get married, it showed me how to get through my own transition. When my husband and I fought, I remembered both their example of “fighting fair” and that there was a huge eventual reward for working through the arguments.
It was grossly unfair that this couple, my role models, were unable to get married when we did, despite being together for 11 years already. It was a wondrous thing when they finally were able to get married this summer. It would be a grotesque miscarriage of justice if their marriage were rent asunder by Proposition 8.
If you can, please give money to the campaign — NOW. Our opponents have raised a huge amount of money, it’s been a scramble to try to match them, and the last possible media buy is happening tomorrow (31 October 2008) at noon.
And please please please remember to go to the polls and remember to vote NO. Leave the law the way it is, leave equality in place, leave Rich and Chris’ marriage intact.
Best Webfoot Forward » Anti-marriage-equality piece reflects values said,
November 20, 2008 at 11:28 am
[…] is exactly what I was getting at in this post: and in the first paragraph of this post. Marriage equality is not a threat to traditional marriage. It is a threat to traditional […]