NaBloPoMo Day 15: Of Interest

I wrote some stuff here awhile ago of really no consequence at all about my first boyfriend, who later became a rock star, demonstrating that I am kind of a dumbass and really had no kind of good judgement, like, at all, and I've since then just gotten rid of it, because while I'm not really that embarassed by my lack of good judgement as a teenager, I do feel like sort of a dumbass for bragging about going at it with a talented but very awkward, sort of weird, kind of monomaniacal guy who later turned out to be moderately famous. Well, not bragging so much as just putting it out there. Anyway.

I am totally horrified by the passage of Proposition 8 in California, even almost two weeks after the fact, to the point where it's hard for me to wrap my brain around it. Seriously, I can't believe we're still in this place where people are still so threatened by the idea of two people who genuinely love and care about each other so much that they want it to matter, no matter the persuasion.

I'm horrified by the idea that legalizing marriage for people of the same gender is still a point of contention at all, to be honest. You know, I'm a grownup and I can acknowledge that there are plenty of points of view that can be recognized as perfectly valid, but is this not something that we've dealt with before? I'm busy and I'm not doing any research, but are there still states in the country where interracial marriage is still illegal? There aren't, are there? I can't believe we haven't moved past any of this yet.

Is this really still a topic that needs to be addressed, because to me it seems blatantly obvious, and I'm known for being annoyingly prone to arguing both sides of any given topic, but I've got nothing to say on the other end of this. When you offer something to one group of people, no questions asked, and deny it to another group, equally qualified in every way, you're doing a disservice to everyone.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to be lost in embracing the differences between people, in celebrating people who are different and the differences as well. We are all better, richer, more whole, smarter, more grounded, kinder, less likely to hurt people intentionally, and less tolerant of people and things that do, when we do.

This is exactly why I stopped going to church, why I stopped embracing religion and started relying on my own judgement of what spirituality really means: there are way, way, way too many people who use their beliefs to draw a line in the sand. I think sometimes that when God sees what goes on in his name, it makes him/her throw up. I can't stomach the people who draw attention to their piety and use it as justification to exclude and hurt people.

Defeating Proposition 8 wasn't about religion, or tradition, or legality. It was about a level playing field. I thought that's what America was supposed to have, a level playing field. Recognizing same-sex marriage doesn't devalue straight marriage. It doesn't encourage people who aren't gay to become gay--that notion is so absurd to me that I am stunned that people are still putting it out there. It doesn't do anything but open a door that should be open already. And I am blazing pissed that as a nation, we're still fighting this fight, and losing.