As many of you heard, Connecticut’s supreme court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage today. Awesome.<\/p>\n
However, next month Californians will be voting on prop 8, which seeks to eliminate same-sex marriage here. For the last couple of months, polls have been looking good, but earlier this week support for the proposition jumped by ten points<\/a>. 47% of Californians are now in favor of eliminating same-sex marriage rights, with 42% opposing. If this proposition passes, it’ll reverse the supreme court’s decision and once again make same-sex marriage illegal. Now, the numbers are inexact, and pollsters are saying it’s still too close to call. But we need to pay attention to this.<\/p>\n A couple of quick notes: contrary to the lies supporters are spreading, the existence of same-sex marriage does not mean that officiants are now forced<\/em> to perform these marriages. One thing you hear fairly often is that theoretically, people can now sue their places of worship if said place of worship won’t marry them. Sure, they could file a lawsuit – they could absolutely take the paperwork down to the courthouse and hand it to the clerk. But it’d be laughed out of court. Rabbis aren’t forced to marry Jews and non-Jews, even though that’s legal.<\/p>\n Also. This whole thing about forcing teachers to tell their students that homosexuality is okay? Please. The reasoning goes like this: since teachers sometimes talk about marriage in the classroom, teachers would theoretically be required<\/em> to teach that same-sex marriage is just as good as hetero marriage. I actually wish that were the case, but no – the police aren’t going to break down the doors of classrooms in which teachers aren’t extolling same-sex marriage. It just isn’t going to happen.<\/p>\n My husband put it very nicely: supporters of prop 8 are framing all of their arguments as theoretical – as if Californians haven’t already been living with gay marriage (in our state, cities, neighborhoods, or homes) since June. They don’t want us to think about the fact that it’s a reality: first off, because that would call attention to the fact that they’re trying to take away actual rights,<\/em> and secondly, because people might start to notice that civilization hasn’t crumbled to pieces yet.<\/p>\n And don’t get me started on that party-A-party-B-is-ruining-straight-marriage bullshit.<\/p>\n If you live in California, please volunteer to phone bank with the No On 8<\/a> campaign. And if you live in Connecticut, pay attention to this – the bigots are showing their cards.<\/p>\n Stay tuned for my diatribe against prop 4! Also opposition to prop 2, which people are claiming will force us to eat Mexican chickens. No, I’m not making this up.<\/p>\n (Cross-posted on Modern Mitzvot<\/a><\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As many of you heard, Connecticut’s supreme court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage today. Awesome. However, next month Californians will be voting on prop 8, which seeks to eliminate same-sex marriage here. For the last couple of months, polls … Continue reading