Apparently, California is the place to be if you’re a chicken. I don’t just mean someone who’s easily afraid of things. I mean an actual chicken. You see, dear friends, the fine citizens of the sunshine state have voted to pass a proposition into law which would (according to Wikipedia):

…prohibit the confinement of certain farm animals in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs. The measure deals with three types of confinement: veal crates, battery cages, and sow gestation crates.

I’m all for animal rights. Lord knows if anyone ever tried to harm the little head or the littler head, I’d likely end up in jail on assault charges.

What boggles my mind about the passing of Proposition 2 is that those same citizens who cared so much about a chicken’s ability to spread its limbs before becoming KFC’s meal of the day also passed Proposition 8 – the ballot which limits marriage to that between “one man and one woman.”

The kicker to all this? Members of the Mormon Church donated millions to help ensure Proposition 8 passed. These people are so concerned with protecting the sanctity of marriage they used scare tactics and blatant lies to sway voters to pass the proposition. This is the same group of people who believe a man should have as many wives as he pleases. Apparently, they can pick and choose which aspects of the lord’s word they want to follow. I don’t think any Church, regardless of its beliefs should have any influence over the laws of a state or country.

I don’t understand this fear that allowing gays to marry will ruin the institution of marriage. How is Britney Spears being married for 24 hours upholding the sanctity of marriage? Why can Pamela Anderson marry and divorce as many people as she wants? Can gay people possibly make things any worse?

And then there’s the high rate of divorce. A few bloggers have made the point that Divorce should be made illegal. If the Mormons and other right-wing crazies want to protect marriage, then those who do get married should have to stay together, always. The belief is that a vow is made before God and that is something that can never be broken, especially not with divorce papers. If the sanctimonious right want to use the bible to say that homosexuality is a sin, then should they not use it completely? Mark 10:1-12:

9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 10 And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. 11 And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. 12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

Half of all marriages end in divorce. Yet, those on the right are fine with issuing divorces and letting people re-marry. Why then, do they not apply the teachings in the bible to divorce? No one is up in arms over divorce rates being what they are, yet they feel the need to meddle in the lives of gays and lesbians who only want to be treated equally.

I know what anyone who stumbles across this will think: why should I care? I live in Canada, I can marry S if I want to. The thing about this is, it doesn’t matter where you live. This type of inequality is continuing to make second class citizens of people in their own nation. A nation that just elected a president who is a visible minority – a first in its history. Is hate against gays the new racism? It wasn’t that long ago that interracial marriage was illegal. With the civil rights movement, change came about. When will change come about for us?

Whenever I read anything about this whole Proposition 8 business, I think of the first story in the movie If These Walls Could Talk 2. The story centers on an elderly lesbian couple. One of the women passes away and then a nephew of hers who she never saw comes along and kicks her partner out of their house.

That kind of thing terrifies me. That people can spend years creating and sharing a life with their partner only to lose everything because they aren’t legally protected. Yes, gay people can go through lawyers and gets wills and powers of attorney. But why should we jump through hoops and pay expensive lawyers fees for the same rights a heterosexual gets just by going down to city hall and signing a piece of paper?

Proposition 8 is disgusting. To grant a right to people only to take it away months later is absurd in this, the year 2008. Imagine waking up one day to find out your not considered a person, that chickens have more value than you. That’s what the gays and lesbians in California woke up to last week.

Change is due. Change is coming.

Related posts:

  1. Day Without a Gay
  2. 8 against 8
  3. Super Lesbionic
  4. 3:42am
  5. Wine, Philosophy, Gender Identity and More Wine Part 2