Do The Right Thing

Oh man am I royally pissed.
Tonight was supposed to be completely joyous. Barack Obama is the President-elect of the United States. The first Black president, but more importantly, he is intelligent, thoughtful, has very capable advisors, and will bring much needed sanity to the White House after eight years of the Bush debacle. I am happy that John McCain gave a gracious concession speech which reminded me why I liked him back in 2000 when Bush and Rove dragged his name through every mud pit they could find, why I liked him 2004 and thought he might be a good running mate for John Kerry. Unfortunately, his supporters were ridiculously ugly during the speech, booing their next President loudly. It just goes to show you that right wingers are not as patriotic as they say they are, they are only true patriots when the person they want is in charge.
Anyway, all of this isn't what gets my blood boiling. What makes me so angry is that Proposition 8 which bans gay marriage in California, passed. And what made the difference is the votes of Black people, the very same Black people who came out in droves to vote for Barack Obama. From exit polling, 69%... SIXTY-NINE PERCENT of Black people voted to ban gay marriage. It makes me sick to my stomach to think that Black people would so openly and heavily discriminate against another group of people, after all we've been through. How and why should someone, through referendum/proposition/constitutional changes, tell another adult how to love ANOTHER ADULT? This is not about children, not about teaching different kinds of sexuality, this is not about religion. This is about the states ability to tell two adults whether or not their relationship is recognized under the law. I don't want to hear that it's an argument over semantics, over whether or not civil unions are legally equal to marriages. Seperate but equal? Where have we heard that before?

What it really comes down to, is gay sex, and more specifically, gay male sex. Homosexuals are not seen as human beings; in this context they are seen only as sexual beings whose only goal in life is to fuck every man that moves. Well, I think Twizzlers are nasty and not only that, but we are feeding them to our children, IN SCHOOLS!
What's funny is that, as Andrew Sullivan (the conservative writer for the Atlantic, who is also gay) put it, marriage would go a long way towards helping Americans accept gay people outside the context of sex. When I think of married couples, I think of people raising a family, of sharing responsibilities, both the good and bad times, about having a companion to grow old with and bounce ideas off of.

People always go back to religion on this. The Bible (the Quran, the Torah, etc.) says it's wrong, it's a sin. I love the selectivity with which people apply the "it's a sin argument." People I went to high school with, who had pre-marital sex, cursed, drank, smoked, disobeyed their parents, and did badly in school would nevertheless say, "being gay's a sin," when we would have discussions about civil rights. We as a community have an enormous amount of problems, economic problems, educational problems, self-esteem problems, problems that will take vision and dedication in order to solve and it's a shame that instead of concentrating on building coalitions we are tearing them down, expelling our gay brothers and sisters from our community and repelling the goodwill we could generate from the gay community at large. How about these huckster, pimp/preachers concentrate on helping Black people solve some of those problems instead of trying to push their incredibly skewed views of religion on to an entire state. Let's be real about this, and I'm sorry if I offend anyone, but the Old Testament of the Bible is a book of myths, like Greek myths or Norse myths, only it's also packed with a bunch of boring lists. Regardless of what you believe, can you honestly say that a free society, which purports to separate church and state, should rely on 6000 year old books as a basis for its laws? Leviticus, the book with the most widely used anti-gay scripture quote, calls homosexuality an abomination. You want to know what else is an abomination? Shrimp and wearing clothes made of two different types of material, among other things. So, of course we should make it illegal to eat at Red Lobster. And it's a sin to have that nice blue and white polycotton blended shirt in your dresser. Snarkiness aside, why should our society have to subscribe to a skewed view of Christianity, or any religion?
I'm not anti-religion, like I said before, I love the mystical aspects and the emphasis on service that some religions have. I just don't buy arguments that are based on religion in these circumstances. The fight has to continue on, and hopefully those that have already fought so hard can help to persuade others to help fight this civil rights issue. As T. Coates, another writer from the Atlantic said, "You don't have to like black/gay people in order to do the right thing." Here's hoping that we eventually do the right thing.

PS: I am VERY DISAPPOINTED in Barack Obama for taking such a milquetoast stand on this "controversial issue." He's on record opposing gay marriage but for civil unions, a political tool me thinks. I guess it's because of his religious beliefs which, would make him inconsistent to say the least.