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05 November, 2009

Maine Voters Strip Civil Rights

Shame on you, 53% of Maine:
Let's start with Maine's No on 1 campaign. We lost. So sorry, Maine gays. You're still not quite human.
The problem with gay-marriage referendums is, it's about civil rights. Civil rights exist because your legal status shouldn't depend on popular opinion. If we'd had referendums in 1964 about the Civil Rights Act, it would still be illegal for Heidi Klum to marry Seal. Seems silly, right? That's because it is.
With 87 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday morning, 53 percent of voters had approved the repeal, ending an expensive and emotional fight that was closely watched around the country as a referendum on the national gay-marriage movement. Polls had suggested a much closer race.
Maine voters also decided to expand the state’s 10-year-old medical marijuana law, approving a ballot question to allow state-regulated dispensaries to grow the drug and sell it to patients. The vote comes weeks after the Obama administration announced it would not prosecute patients and distributors who are in "clear and unambiguous" compliance with state laws. Maine will be the third state, after New Mexico and Rhode Island, to allow tightly regulated, nonprofit marijuana dispensaries.
Yeah, polls suggested a much closer race because people are so reluctant to admit they're homophobic. But hey, how about those stoners? Closeted Maine Republicans can still get high, so you got that going for you.
I find it difficult to express my outrage, because there aren't really words for it.  The fact that over 50% of voters can strip civil rights away from fellow human beings is disgusting.  I have no fucking idea why gays getting married is such a problem.  It's not like anyone's coming into homophobe's homes and forcing them into same-sex marriages.  If two consenting adults love each other and want to commit to each other for life, what fucking business do these bigoted fucktards have stripping that right away?  I don't understand it, don't respect it, and I hope to fuck the people of this country eventually extract themselves from the dark ages and join the rest of the enlightened world.

I'm going to be petty here.  I'm going to hope that the 53% of voters who can't extend a simple human right to fellow human beings get to experience the anguish of seeing a precious right stripped away, just once in their lives.  I doubt it will teach them compassion, or empathy, or simple humanity.  But it might.  And I hope they'll get to experience having their rights restored, realize what justice means, and learn to appreciate justice for others.


I know.  Dream on, right?

At least I can be proud that my own state did the right thing.  At least Washington's LGBT couples now have a few precious rights.  Let's see if, eventually, we go the whole distance.  I want to attend a real, live wedding where my friends can be pronounced husband and husband, or wife and wife.

It's something Maine's couples will have to wait until more enlightened times for.

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