Memeage

[msagara]

Copy this sentence into your livejournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage/relationship (or if you think you might be someday), and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

I am of the opinion that if other people living their own lives can easily threaten your marriage, there are issues that need to be worked out that have little, in the end, to do with said other people. I don't really understand -- I truly don't -- why this is such a big issue for people. It's not like having legal gay marriage is somehow going to force you to suddenly switch your sexual preference. Look, on a purely pragmatic level, happy, committed couples are more likely to have a stake in the community in which they live. Happy people usually want other people to be happy. They are just much more pleasant to have as neighbours.

So...do the people who hate this idea so much live in a crabby, enclosed little space in which they're unhappy enough to assume that everyone should suffer?

I know that some people point to children as a reason why gays shouldn't be allowed to marry (they can't, on their own or without intervention, have them). But no one seems to care if a heterosexual couple chooses not to have children, and I fail to see how this is fundamentally different.

Comments

[april-art.livejournal.com]

Yes on 8 (for an amendment to CA state constitution BANNING gay marriage) adverts have been running and certainly seem like fear mongering:

2nd. Graders will be taught about gay marriage and parents will not have a say-- or be able to withdraw their kids from class--it's happened in Massachusetts!!!

Churches will lose tax-exempt status!!!

People will be sued over their religious beliefs!!!

Ads are paid for by out-of-state money from Mormons in Utah and Knights of Columbus in Connecticut. (They had more money for a while until Apple recently tipped it the other way.)

No on 8 donors were sent letters threatening that their names and businesses would be published and circulated unless they gave equal donations to Yes on 8... (it's next to extortion, but legal).

Meanwhile, the sky has not fallen and people have been quietly getting married here. I'm hoping reason and tolerance will triumph over bigotry and discrimination, but who knows? We'll see how it goes on Election Day, I guess...

[msagara.livejournal.com]

2nd. Graders will be taught about gay marriage and parents will not have a say-- or be able to withdraw their kids from class--it's happened in Massachusetts!!!

The parents are always free to add their own words of advice or their own take on the issue. They may not be comfortable doing this, otoh.

I've had any number of people ask me "what if your children were gay", and honestly? At the age they are now, I can't tell either way. I'd kind of like them to have a chance to be happy with who and what they are, regardless. If they are, and I was trying desperately to close off any avenues to a life that has otherwise made me happy, that would say a lot about me as a parent.

And I kind of like none of it.

[phrasework.livejournal.com]

As a newlywed from MA (holy crap it's almost been a year :D )I am one of many many hetero couples who think that slippery slope line is complete BS. My gay friends who are married don't affect my marriage any more than any other joe schmoe, it's a weak argument. And my kids (when I have them...eventually), well, I hope schools are free to teach them about ALL the many differences between peoples. Race, culture, sexuality, etc. If hearing that some people do things differently than one's own family is threatening to the kid, well that's shortsighted.

I hope Californian's can win this one, for themselves and everyone in the country. The more states who put down these proposals the better.