04 November 2008

More Hope

  • This post at Andrew Sullivan's made me cry the first time I read it. I am so holding my breath about Prop 8.
  • Nerdy playdate: Curious Girl and her friend today wanted to see a photo of Barack Obama's grandmother. They noticed there were movies on the Obama website, too, and wanted to watch them. As they stood there watching the Obama bio video, this conversation: "This is not a boring movie. This is a good movie!" "yes, this is a good movie." "Oh, look, that's him when he was a baby!" "This is a good movie."

5 comments:

Rev Dr Mom said...

Oh, that's too cute. They have very discriminating tastes in movies and politics, clearly.

Phantom Scribbler said...

Andrew Sullivan made me cry again this morning, too. Oh, California. Breaking our hearts.

kathy a. said...

my state is breakin' my heart, too. i was so hoping we could squash this ugly thing.

there is going to be litigation. someone must be considering legal challenges to the constitutional amendment -- how viable they are, i have no way of knowing, but it seems incredibly unfair that a bare majority popular vote could strip married people of their rights, and prevent similarly situated people from marrying.

there almost certainly will be litigaton in individual cases, don't you think?

the hell of it is that prop 8 goes in a completely opposite direction from civil rights protections afforded to individuals. the US and california constitutions guarantee protections like freedom of association, equal protection under the law, due process of law, privacy -- all designed to protect individuals from governmental interference and discrimination.

the california supreme court decision recognizing the right of same-sex couples to marry was based on very well established law about these kinds of individual protections. what happens when you start unravelling the constitutional safety net in order to strip individuals of their sacred rights? who else will be up next, to have their fundamental rights subverted by majority vote?

civil rights exist to protect the few against the many. people of different races can marry. people of different nationalities can marry. prisoners can marry, even if they are denied physical contact for security reasons. your idiot cousin can marry the slimiest person on earth, even if the whole family and all her friends know it will end in a disasterous way.

anyway, my guess is that this will end up in court for the next few years. oh freaking joy. maybe the cal supremes will do the right thing again. maybe a federal court will do it for them.

definitely, there is other work to be done. political work. education. personal work. hard work. the heart of prejudice changes person by person, connection by connection, story by story. we've got to take the long view, because the hatred and fear cannot win in the end.

yes we can.

kathy a. said...

the first lawsuit is filed already -- directly with the cal supremes. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/05/BA3B13UM63.DTL

suburban dyke said...

Let’s fight back on Proposition 8. Let’s boycott California wines, produce and travel. Let’s publicize it. Let’s embarrass them. It worked a few years ago in Colorado. What do say?