Welcome, our gay overlords!

Next step? I marry all of my students. And my fish.

I wasn't sure if I'd ever write about the whole gay marriage issue again. I used to write about it frequently during the dark times of California's unfortunate Prop 8. Man, was that really seven years ago when I was standing out in the rain with my wife and friends protesting it? It's hard to believe, but I remember what an awful feeling it was when it passed (which meant that gay people would be unable to get married). It meant that I lived in a state where the citizens voted to take rights away from people. Not a good feeling.

Of course, things got better as it was struck down as being unconstitutional by a federal judge. I think that some folks were hoping that we'd vote on it again, as polls showed that people were more and more in favor of marriage equality, especially young people who were just becoming old enough to vote. But there really wasn't all that much point to funding another campaign, was there? Especially when it started to look more and more likely that it was going to go to the Supreme Court of the United States.

For those of you living in Martian caves, that's exactly what happened, and now gay people have the right to get married throughout the entire country. It's fantastic news, unless you're my four year old. When I tried to talk to him about it, he eventually steered the conversation to honey bees. That's more interesting to him.

Oh, and of course there's all sorts of people complaining about what happened. I'm not going to dignify them by naming them or linking to what they said. You can find it if you want to bad enough. They're saying everything from how we're living in dark times to how this isn't a democracy anymore. (Hint - we're not a democracy. At least, not a pure democracy. Never have been.) Some of them, who are the same ones who love to talk about The Constitution, can't seem to understand that the whole idea of the Supreme Court is exactly what our Founding Fathers intended. (Of course, if the decision went their way, the rhetoric would be that what Jefferson & Company intended prevailed.) There's also the talk of the judges being "activists" which simply means that the judges didn't rule the way they wanted them to rule.

I don't think that I can go over all the reasons why all the arguments against marriage equality are wrong yet again. Some folks seem to think that it's going to open the doors for people having their religious freedom taken away and that churches will be forced to perform same sex weddings. Guess what? Churches already get to discriminate as to who they marry and who they don't. I can't sue the Mormon Church (to name one of many examples) if they don't want to marry me, a non-Mormon. I have to wonder if the people who put forward these arguments know how misleading they are and simply don't care because they know it will worry people.

There's also the whole bit of psychological projection where the anti crowd like to say that those who speak out for equality are being the bigots. I was once compared to the judges in the Salem Witch Trials. It's crazy because if I have my way, they get to keep living their lives exactly how they want to live them. If they win, there will be a group of people who will have less freedom than others.

How can you tell if you're being a bigot? When if your side wins, people are affected negatively. My position doesn't pass that particular test, so there ya go.

There's also some rhetoric coming from the Republican Presidential Race Clown Car of making this an issue in the upcoming election. (Seems like a mistake considering that polls show that the majority of Americans are in favor of the ruling.) One of the particularly nutty ones is suggesting that states ignore the law.

This just goes to show that while we've won a major victory for gay rights, there are still battles to be won in the hearts and minds of people. I figure that with more gay couples getting married and showing us that they're just as boring as everybody else, we'll slowly inch our way there. But as of this point, those who oppose same sex marriage need to ask themselves if it's worth battling this anymore. Give it a year. If it hasn't affected you by then, you'll know that it's time to just drop it and be happy for your gay friends and family.