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• What about the children!?!!??!

  Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008 3:03PM / Standard Entry / Members only
  3 comments

     "We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." This is the opening of the Declaration of Independence by the American colonies from the British Rule. Yet, at the creation of the nation, not all were within protections of these words. Somehow, "all men" did not denote all of mankind; only white men. It did not include black men or women, who were mostly slaves, or any women at all, who were mostly seen as property (like the slaves). It was only through the tenacity of a few, forged through the suffering of many, that now, somehow, we call ourselves "civilized". We cast forth the belief that all are created equal as our sword and shield to the world, a righteousness tattooed on our lips. And yet, last Tuesday, we dragged our self-righteousness limping and bloody to the polls to deny our neighbors their rights to pursue their own happiness.
  
      Even as we stood on the shoulders of giants now long gone-- those giants who ran the Underground Railroad, who marched in Montgomery, whose lawns were set afire, who refused to sit on the back of a bus, the giants who dreamed-- to elect our first black president, we sawed of the legs of those giants just across the road from us-- those who were tied and dragged behind pick up trucks, who were rejected by their own families, who had no legal rights to their own child. On election day, I am sorry to say, I was part of a state that institutionalized hate and a country that believes that the pursuit of happiness is not, in fact, a right to which all entitled.
  
      For those that are unaware, I am talking about the now infamous Prop 8 that passed recently in California, as well as similar laws that passed in other states that now deny homosexual persons the right to get married, or, in one state, the right to adopt children. I remember the day back in May when the California Supreme Court announced that gay people could marry. I was in San Francisco at the time, and hearing the news on my hotel room TV, I cried. Not because I personally gained any new rights or opportunities, but because a part of me felt vindicated. As if I had won a new society where people were finally understanding what it means to really treat each other equally. I felt so proud that just a few miles from where I was standing, justice reigned and a righteous history was beginning to form. I thought it was a beginning of a new time. But on November 4th, I found out I was wrong.
  
     The proponent of these new laws advertised that gay marriage was bad because kids would be taught about gay marriage in schools. This tactic reminds me of the Reverend's wife on the Simpsons who goes around screaming "Think about the children!!!" What about the children indeed. Because this law passed, many children of gay couples can only have one parent legally, not two. Should that parent die, the deceased parent's partner has no legal rights to that child, even if he or she help raise that child. In the eyes of the law, such a parent/child relationship is non-existent. What about the children indeed.
  
     The law that passed in Arkansas is even more sinister. It denies the ability of non-married couples to foster and adopt children. As intended, no gay couples could marry anyway, so that means gay couples cannot foster and adopt kids. Good move considering that there aren't enough good, stable homes for foster and adoptive kids anyway. Arkansas, I'm sure the needy children of your state thank you for denying them loving parents.
  
     I was even sadder to learn that in California, this unfair amendment garnered the bulk of minority votes. Considering the history of this country, I would have thought that minorities, better than all people, would know how it feels and understands what it is to be treated differently and worse for simply being who you are. To be denied something as fundamental to humanity and civilization as marrieage simply because of the person standing next to you.
  
     Not too long ago, there was a US Supreme Court case called, appropriately, Loving v. Virginia. In this case, the court ruled that Virginia's law that a person of a certain race could only marry another person of that same race was unconstitutional. The Court said that such a law was meant to support the idea that whites were better than blacks, so this law cannot exist. In a similar vein, a law that says that a person can only marry someone of the opposite sex only propels the idea that heterosexual people are better than homosexual peoplee. Proponents of those laws will never say this out loud for fear of seeming like bigots, but that's what they mean. The idea that all the rights that come with marriage can only be conferred upon heterosexual couples suggests that the law prefers heterosexual couples. This is inequality no matter how you cut it.
  
     The reason that the courts won't apply the logic of Loving v. Virginia to invalidate measures like Prop 8 is because while race is a protected class, sexual preference is not. I think it's funny that whether you are heterosexual or homosexual is even called "preference". As if people all over the world "prefer" to be demonized by society, alienated by their family and friends, and even executed in certain countries. The fact the sexual identity is not a protected class is criminal.
  
     But I do have hope. I can't wait for the day that I will hear on the news that Prop 8 has been overturned, and I will cry tears of vindication again. The day that each one of us is judged by the contents of our character, and not by what is in the pants of the person we love.