Wait. What?!

In an election where people of my political leanings were generally elated, the one BIG, BIG downside is the passing of Prop 8 in California, and similar measures in other states. And unsurprisingly, I have some thoughts. I have a lot of thoughts. I'm going to limit myself here to just a few. The main argument against legal gay marriage is this whole, "redefining" marriage issue. And people get very het up about the fact that marriage has meant one thing for thousands of years, and that it's defined in the bible. Okay. I get that reservation. It's stupid, but I get it. But...since when does California, or any state, govern based on the bible? Don't get me wrong. I love the bible. But this country was FOUNDED on the separation between church and state. And most of the gay couples I know who want to get married aren't as interested in the religious ceremony as they are in the NON-RELIGIOUS legal rite. If E and I had wanted to, we could have marched down to city hall and had a completely secular marriage there.

Because E and I are legally married (not because we are married in the eyes of the Catholic church, although we are), we are able to file joint tax returns, and get a bunch of other ancillary benefits like that. What California has done is to preclude an entire segment of the population from those benefits. How ridiculous is that? These people pay taxes, do they not?

One of the most assinine arguments in favor of measures like Prop 8, that I've heard, is that legalizing gay marriage opens the door to any kind of marriage (ie. marriage to relatives or animals)....Really? Think of it this way. What if, every time a new governor were elected in a state, he/she were able and allowed to nullify marriages in a religion other than his/her own. How ridiculous would that be? But that's what we're talking about, here. Californians are saying that marriages that do not align with their personal religious or moral beliefs are not valid. And we can't allow that kind of bigotry and intolerance to stand in a country that was founded on a premise of freedom from persecution.