Animal-Loving Californians May Strip Rights from GLBT People

I can’t even enjoy Obama’s win: The California Prop 8 battle is still too close to call as I write this, and it appears the edge is leaning toward the bad guys.

There is good news — Prop 2, a bill to protect farm animals, did win. But the thought that voters there are likely to approve a bill to strip gays and lesbians of equality under law, to take away their legal rights and their equality, kills me. Kills me.

Imagine: Californians value animals more than GLBT citizens and their children.

Should this evil measure ultimately win, it will prove that California is the State of Hate. And, tragically, it isn’t alone: Also guilty of this legally inscribed hatred are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

I feel dirty just typing out the names of these places of hate, all of which discriminate against GLBT citizens via constitutional edict. 

Gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender Americans should be wary of continuing to live in states where their neighbors obviously detest them. If my residence were in any of the above-named hellholes, I would move to New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, or Connecticut, the only sane places in the union, or to Canada or one of the European nations that offer marriage equality for all. Alternately, I would recommend another tactic: Band together and start a revolution — NO TAXATION WITHOUT EQUALITY. Why give your money to a government that hates you? (Hat tip to John Bisceglia.)

My current home state, Maryland, does not recognize marriage equality, but neither does it inscribe hatred into its constitution. (Yes, we are planning to move to a place of true equality as soon as we can afford to do so, something we’ve been planning for a long time.) However, until sanity and compassion rule, I will not purchase any item produced or sold by a business from a state with a hate-filled constitution. I will miss movies and California produce. Goodbye to Idaho potatoes and Florida oranges and Wisconsin cheese. And any invites to weddings will be declined except in Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

The fight for equality isn’t over, of course. John McCain is correct about one thing — we can’t quit. But a loss in California, the actual stripping away of rights, sets us back years, perhaps decades. Many of us don’t have that long. Think about poor Del Martin, disenfranchised in the grave. It’s an outrage that shows that yes, America can elect a “black” man to its highest post, and yes, California has an admirably soft spot for animals, but when it comes to true equality for all under law, the nation still is poisoned to its core. It’s disgusting. It’s unforgivably evil. It’s everything America is NOT supposed to be.

The future of same-sex marriage in California remained in limbo late last night, with neither side mustering an early election lead safe enough to declare victory.

… Voters turned in their ballots yesterday morning at the San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center in Hillcrest.

Proposition 8, which would overturn the landmark state Supreme Court ruling in May legalizing same-sex marriage, started out strong but the gap narrowed as returns came in from the San Francisco area.

… Crowds at two popular gay bars in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood were too caught up in Barack Obama’s historic presidential victory to focus on the early returns on Proposition 8. But some patrons took a moment to express their disappointment.

“That’s terrible,” said Dara Goldrath, 30, who voted against the proposition. But “I hope my ‘terrible’ turns into ‘in your face.’”

via SignOnSanDiego.com: Gay marriage ban remains undecided

Of course, not all Californians are bad people. My deep thanks go to those who worked tirelessly for the cause of equality. I am so sorry that your fellow citizens appear to have let you, the 18,000 gay couples that married, and all equality lovers down by choosing the path of hate, intolerance and fear. Perhaps one day the sun will shine again in the Tarnished State of Hate. Until then, until the philosophy that holds one group superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, it’s war.