Prop 8 and onward.

I've been reading some thoughtful and (in the end) encouraging posts about the whole wretched Prop 8 fiasco, so I'm not quite ready to move out of state and change my name. Yet. danjite linked to kittenrae's discussion of the legal issues (and why they're hopeful, and to another post by timberwuf on reasons not to get discouraged. And I am heartened by the almost immediate legal challenges being mounted. It's likely to take time, but it's going to happen.

Still, it is discouraging. I thought we were better than this. People I love are affected by this vote; this hurts them in ways I can only imagine. And I was made very queasy by the shrill scare-tactic advertising I saw in the last few days before the election. "Gay marriage will be taught in school!" "Churches will lose their tax-exempt status!" "Think of the children!" Right. This sounds like the sort of arguments martialled by people who can't find a publisher for their work: "I'm being censored!" No, if the government stepped in and made it impossible for you to publish your work, that would be censorship. In the same way, the government isn't going to make ministers/priests/rabbis/ imams perform marriages that violate their religious feelings--they're just saying that none of those ministers/priests/rabbis/imams (or anyone else, for that matter) get to say that two people who love each other cannot marry. Is that so scary?

In one of the lovely get-out-the-vote films that Steve Spielberg and a cast of thousands did this year (the "Five Friends" clips on YouTube) some of the actors say why they're voting: for the environment, for their children, for the people who fought for the franchise. Neil Patrick Harris says quietly, "Because I fell in love, and I want it to matter." Everyone should be entitled to have their love matter.