As the United States elected its first Black candidate, it repudiated equality in marriage. Proposition 8 in California has passed. Proposition 102 in my state of Arizona has passed. Both propose to disallow gay marriage by state constitutional ammendment. And, with quite painful irony, Proposition 8 was given a huge boost of support from the African-American vote in California. Andrew Sullivan laments here. His co-Atlantic blogger, Ta-Nehisi, has his back here.
So bigotry is not gone from our country by any stretch, my dear readers. And bigotry can exist in the hearts and minds of those who have been victims of bigotry themselves (see: Hispanic rejection of Obama in the Democratic primaries, Chinese-Americans who won't acknowledge my presence in their shops when in San Francisco's Chinatown, Puerto Ricans that talk shit about Mexicans and vice-versa, White Northerners that immediately think "idiot" when they hear a White Southern accent, etc., etc.).
But this issue of bigotry seems especially cruel. Homosexuals aren't asking for anything other than the chance to be part of a family. That's it--only to allow them to pick a person they fall in love with and bring them into their family while being part of their loved one's family as well. Marriage is the only vehicle to do this. And to deny this to homosexuals who are otherwise law-abiding, tax-paying adult citizens--while affording any law-abiding, tax-paying heterosexual adult citizen the right--can only be explained by bigotry, not law or reason. It is discrimination. Period. And both California and Arizona should be ashamed of themselves.
So bigotry is not gone from our country by any stretch, my dear readers. And bigotry can exist in the hearts and minds of those who have been victims of bigotry themselves (see: Hispanic rejection of Obama in the Democratic primaries, Chinese-Americans who won't acknowledge my presence in their shops when in San Francisco's Chinatown, Puerto Ricans that talk shit about Mexicans and vice-versa, White Northerners that immediately think "idiot" when they hear a White Southern accent, etc., etc.).
But this issue of bigotry seems especially cruel. Homosexuals aren't asking for anything other than the chance to be part of a family. That's it--only to allow them to pick a person they fall in love with and bring them into their family while being part of their loved one's family as well. Marriage is the only vehicle to do this. And to deny this to homosexuals who are otherwise law-abiding, tax-paying adult citizens--while affording any law-abiding, tax-paying heterosexual adult citizen the right--can only be explained by bigotry, not law or reason. It is discrimination. Period. And both California and Arizona should be ashamed of themselves.
