Thank you Texas for defending marriage today.

I couldn't help but notice that your newspapers actually called it a "Texas Upholds Gay Marriage Ban, instead of Upholds Straight Marriage Defense, but we knew that's what you meant all along.

To the 535,000 people who voted in Texas to recognize same sex marriages, many of which already exist but not yet legally, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts for being remarkable, principled, fair minded and decent humans. You did the right thing, and it means more than is possible to put into words. You recognized that my love for my family is as fierce and as powerful and as consuming as your love is for your family, and you did the right and decent and moral thing, as you would have done for your own family. Thank you, thank you.

The rest of you three out of four Texans, you can go fuck yourselves, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart, for being the apathetic fucking shitbag throwback worthless waste of piss poor protoplasm that you are. I wouldn't give you my piss to drink if you were dying in the desert today, and I mean Darwin will get you, with a little help from me, and believe me today, I am volunteering.

The next time you ask for money for breast cancer at the supermarket, I want to know which way you voted. The next time a fireman stops me in traffic with a boot collecting for charity, I want to know which way you voted. The next time your kids come to my home by the busload for halloween or scouts or school trips, I want to know which way you voted, the next time you call me to get a cat out of your tree, pick your ancient husband up off the bathroom floor, or to rake your leaves or help find your kid's dog, because I know that three out of four of you voted to make and keep my family illegal. You will be held accountable.

Three out of four of you voted to make my family's life as difficult and as fragile as possible. Three out of four of you voted that my evil little nephews have a greater claim on my estate than my life partner of 9 years, or my adopted children as long as I live in the state of Texas. Three out of four of you voted to keep my life illegal and invalid. Three out of four of you assaulted my family, stepped out of your busy little evil lives and into mine to tell me, with the weight of the law, what is right for me, by taking away my rights. Three out of four of you had better watch your back now, you will be held accountable.

I want vengeance. I want to hurt your families the way you've hurt mine, legally, financially, socially. I want to figuratively slam you up against the wall and ask you why you think that the green-eyed marriage ban is moral, or why you think that the asian-american marriage ban or the red headed marriage ban is moral or why you petty little judgemental sons of bitches think that the gay marriage ban is moral. I want to know why you think that discriminating against my family is a family value.

I want to know why you think my family means less to me than your family means to you, why you think I should feel any less angry or devastated than you would if your family was assaulted by three out of four people that you know. I am hurting today and deeply, profoundly, even dangerously angry today, and there isn't a lot that I can do for the pain and the rage I feel except to vent it here.

We knew it was coming, like knowing that getting pushed down the stairs means you probably will break an arm doesn't make it hurt any less when you break it. How can we support what is right and decent in society when society won't be right and decent to us?

We're not waiting for your permission to live our lives. We are already married for all intents and purposes. We already have families, we just have to work A LOT harder to keep bigots from hurting us, from interfering with our families in the name of "morality" and "family values". But a clear warning here: if you get in the way of me and mine at the hospital, you will require the services of a hospital, and I mean that literally, not figuratively. If you decide that my children no longer belong to me or that I can't live with the person I love for the rest of my life, I can't say in public the lengths I would go to to disabuse you of that notion, but I will invoke Darwin again.

And I am telling you right now, if you change the law to discriminate against my family, then I have no use for your fucking laws. And if you make being an American so shameful and such a paean to bigotry in the 21st century that you use a constitution to REMOVE rights rather than establish them, then I have no use for being American either.

Okay I'm ready for a pep talk now.

As a 'no' voter, we'll just have to keep fighting for what is right. :hug:

just sitting at my desk with a tear in my eye reading your post. :cry:
I live in CT and work in MA, my family is "recognized" to different degrees where I live and work. We all knew what would happen in texas, but you're right it does not make it easier. What are the options other than moving OUT of texas and leaving the state to the bible thumpers? I understand and sympathize with your rage - but violence is NOT the answer (I cannot believe I wrote that - if I were in your shoes right now, I would have to be restrained). Please know you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers - when will the right wingers realize OUR families are stronger because of the love we need to keep them together? THEIR families are either trophies (Santorum comes to mind) or neglected when they cheat on their spouses and get divorced). Peace :hug:

"THEIR families are either trophies (Santorum comes to mind) or neglected when they cheat on their spouses and get divorced)"

Not always. But often enough. Often enough for it to make most of them hypocrites for saying anything about family. Absolultely true.

I'm a "breeder" that wouldn't mind at all if homosexuals "took over" to the maximum extent as would HORRIFY our puritanical nation. That would be fine. And I image they and we would be treated better by you than you are being treated by them. Please pardon the breeder remark, it just cracks me up, because it's such a cute insult, and then too I know too many homosexual parents for it to even bother me if someone used it as an insult. ;)

you need a long hug. I am sorry this has devastated you so, and to quote a great American, "I feel your pain." And I feel it because you just MADE me feel it. This is a fine piece of writing.

Of course, you will never KNOW who voted againt you because it is very hard to look into the eyes of a gay person and fall back on the anti-gay rhetoric. Because..wow! Gay people are actually people like me. They bleed, cry, rake their lawns, get cancer, win the lottery or not. They are like me. And it is so very easy to think of them as "the others" and to try and legislate their lives....from a distance. And thank God their votes ARE secret or there would be hell to pay.

The only comfort I can give you is the sure knowledge that this is an issue that will not go away, and I truly believe that in as few years as 10 we will look back and shake our heads in wonder.

For years the straight community thought of the gay community as a bunch of guys in bath houses, with 1000's of partners a year, spreading disease and death. Then looked what happened! They left their adolescence behind, found the loves of their lives and had kids. They bought houses, cars, and became part of the American dream. And NOW we come down on them? When they have done everything we said they should do when we tsked-tsked at their promiscuity?

Take heart. Love your family. Tighten up the legal issues. Write the evil nephews OUT of your will. This is a temporary glitch in society and it will go away.

thanks TallahasseeGranny!

We do have lots of friends and support, and today isn't much different than yesterday in truth, but the enormity of waking up this morning and having people I have never met "in my house" telling me how to live my life was still a shock.

Thanks for the hugs & support; very appreciated -

-sui

We need the vision because we don't have the reality. Thanks for setting out that vision with such grace. Peace and strength to you for your challenges and thanks for the help you offer with ours.

This whole thing is just a non issue. (of course it is not a non issue to you.) But there is a generation that is dying out, and this discrimination will die with it.

For years, for generations, people were actively taught that same sex behavior was perversion, evil. It's going to take a while to get that out of the culture, but it WILL move on. We were also taught to be virgins at marriage. Do you know any? I don't. I was just counting on my hand the weddings I've been to in the last five years where the bride and groom were living together. Fifteen. ALL OF THEM. Including both my kids, and all my nieces and nephews. So that was a huge change in our culture. Who would have thought, 50 years ago, that this would ever happen? Nobody.

You are a ground breaker. You just love your family and the world will see by your example that you are no different than they are.

and we live in Florida, so this doesn't affect me directly, but I consider every one of these discriminatory acts an affront to my family and an intrusion in our private lives.

Just who the fuck do these assholes think are to tell my daughter who she must love and partner with? How dare they?
:mad:

and I will move back north if they follow Texas' lead.

The south just keeps biting off it's own nose to spite it's face. Are the bozos self-destructive by nature or genetics or is it some kind of mass psychosis?

Based on the actual text of the amendment, a very fair reading is that it does not actually prohibit gay marriage, it prohibits hetero marriage!

Sentence one, in essence: Marriage is defined as the union of one man and one woman.

Sentence two, in essence: The state may not create or recognize any relationship identical to marriage.

In order to hold that this amendment deals with gay marriage, a judge would have to say that the amendment does not mean what its plain language says. In other words, legislate from the bench.

Now, we just need a case to test it.

in the right direction. If their marraige isn't recognized, maybe a little glimmer of understanding. Maybe the numbers drop to 3 out of 5.

Not much good, but I feel your pain Sui. And your absolutely righteous anger.

I have some big purchases to make soon and will research companies to see how they voted. I already have to boycott a few of my favorite restaurants b/c their owners are openly supporting republicans. I've never been so anti-republican but this anti-gay marriage bullshit really makes me mad.

We did all we could, the age of unenlightment cannot go on forever. I have already been in a big argument about this already after the person trashed Glenn Maxey.

This will be corrected one way or another. I was appalled to see it passed by such a margin. Maybe we will all have to emigrate due to religious persecution.

Although I don't think my lover and i would choose marriage if we could, FREEDOM TO MARRY is here a basic human right!

Very well said, sui!!!

I was actually feeling kind of good today because of some of these elections. What you just wrote crushed me back down. Thank you for putting things in perspective. Thank you for so eloquently allowing me to understand your pain. I feel it now too.

fight 'em with all you got!

We have gay marriage here in Massachusetts and those fucks are trying to have it taken away. Got to fight 'em to the end.

... the thing that moved me the most was this statement:

We're not waiting for your permission to live our lives.

Missouri, where I live, was one of the first two states to pass these horrid measures back in August 2004. We were demoralized then, wondering what we could have done different to change the outcome. We were even more demoralized to see more states fall to the forces of bigotry and ignorance.

But somewhere along the line the sadness and anger turned to a conviction that we will not only survive, but will thrive because our worth as a people cannot be dictated by the type of fearful bigots who wrap themselves in their perversion of religion and pronounce themselves "moral."

We WILL prevail. Not just because our cause is just, but because those who oppose us are a dying breed giving a last gasp to their bigotry just as a dying animal may snap at anything within its reach.

Until the time that this sickness of fundamentalism draws its last, ragged breath - and passes into the hell and eternal torment its practitioners so righteously deserve - so are so right, Sui ... We do NOT need their permission to live our lives.

and both my husband and myself voted 'NO' to Proposition 2, the 'marriage' amendment. From talking to people and reading different papers, I really thought it was going to be defeated, as so many were going to vote against it. I can only imagine it to be a regional thing, with West and North Texas being much more pro-Prop 2. I can't explain some people's ignorance...

A newly-elected governor about whom everyone seems to be cheering wants a state constitutional amendment banning both marriages and civil unions.

I pray and work for a time when it will no longer be the choice of the lesser of two evils... lesser evils are still killing us.

Sui, it hurts my heart that the majority of people in Texas are so ignorant. I voted against prop 2, all of my friends voted against it, my church encouraged us to vote on the side of love rather than hate. It wasn't enough, and we knew it would never be enough.

We didn't expect the measure to fail. All of us who voted against it knew that the amendment would pass with a huge majority. It gave the self-righteous modern-day hipocrites something to crow about. It was something they could do that would keep them from taking a hard look at their own hipocracy; a straw man made of "hollywood and media liberals trying to make homosexuality mainstream" propped up to blame for their own assault on morals and values.

The people who passed this stinking pile of useless legislation are the type of people who need someone to discriminate against in order to feel powerful. They've done it to Women, Jews, Africans, Irish, Japanese, and Hispanics. My only hope now is that history will repeat itself, as it seems all groups who were once disinfranchised have eventually had their civil rights restored. I just hope it doesn't take much longer.

and the support - I know that we're all on the same side here at least. It just took until I got to work for it to really sink in - that I've never really felt like an outsider or like I wasn't accepted by my friends, but to have strangers vote on something so personal and so integral to my life felt like a violation.

Keep up the good works - & thanks

and this, from a later post

"but to have strangers vote on something so personal and so integral to my life felt like a violation."

very well sums it up. It is DEEPLY DEEPLY personal.

Keep fighting Sui Generis, and most importantly, keep living your life.

just remember that all people in Texas do not feel that way..... I live outside of Houston and I voted, sent emails and
campaigned for you and your family. I believe in your cause.
I believe that strengthening your family will only help us all.
I believe that this unjust law will not stand for long. Yes,
it is a travesty, but you must know that there are a lot of us
that feel your pain, and will keep up the work for you.
I know that your anger is justified. But know that I, for one,
think of your and your family and wish you all the wonderful things that only families can give...... I know this sounds sappy, sorry.
My 18 yo son voted for the first time yesterday, and his biggest
desire was to vote down this despicable law.
This fight is not over and won't be until you and your family get the respect that you deserve....:grouphug:

I had heard that the vote pretty much followed "liberal" versus "conservative" suburbia, with urban areas mostly rejecting the amendment and conservative suburbs trouncing the urbanites.

Thank you and your son for the support and thoughtfulness and for being fair minded and decent and kind.

-sui

and then we'll fight them on the ice!"

I heard that at Camp Casey (2) in Crawford from a Dr Lyons.
I will apply it here as well.

This is a civil rights issue and for any Dems that do not back us on this I will personally hold them accountable.

Christians do not own marriage and it is high time that those that think they do, realize there is little difference between them and racist segregationists. They are wrong and they will learn it...

Fuckin' pigs.

I wish I was in TX to further express my disgust vocally and up close to these jerkwads.

No one is free unless everyone is free.

In a society where hate and intolerance are used as political weapons, tolerance and understanding are our arsenal. Keep the faith. Keep up the good fight. My hat is off to you and everyone else striving to bring equality to EVERY state in the Union.

That doesn't make it hurt any less, I'm sure.

I feel very sorry about it. There was no way I would have missed voting yesterday precisely because I know what it means to families like yours.

I think those voters on the church buses don't have any CLUE what it means to families like yours.

And I strongly suggest that Prop 2 existed solely to get out rightwingers to ensure that the other Props passed -- bet they told those folks to just vote yes on everything.

I swear if I see any church involved in politics around here, I'll do everything I can to get their 501c3 status stripped as quickly and painfully as possible.

It became final today. Gotta protect marriage, ya know.

shit.

They cannot, for even a moment, see things from anyone else's perspective but their own.

All I can tell you is make sure you have a will with very explicit instructions and some firearms.

If someone tried to take my kids away because the state thought my marriage was improper... I'd resort to some Darwinistic tendencies too.

I hope all the hypocrites are exposed for the pieces of shit they are.
I hope those that did this to so many good, loving families suffer an ironic malady of their own.

Have faith that one day the world will come to it's senses, in the meanwhile may you and your family be blessed.
Take care of yourselves.

:hug:

this is the kind of thing that should be sent to the newspapers. For FAR too long we've tried to be reasonable in this faux debate over controlling our own lives. It hasn't been the bigots who stood by and were barred from the funerals of their partners, nor the bigots who stood by while some distant cousin had the right to steal property or, worse, exhume our partner's bodies from graves. Our failure to truly VENT this anger is one reason we continue to be abused. . .and while the Right can say the most outrageous things without anyone batting an eye, we are supposed to be reasonable in explaining politely that we are tired of this kind of treatment.

This is exactly the kind of thing that needs to be said publicly. The kind of thing that questions the "morality" of these faux religious crazies who require human sacrifices for their chosen lifestyle. Make them explain why their chosen religious beliefs deserve more protections than our relationship orientation. . .make them explain how they get special rights because they choose to believe in a vengeful fearmongering, hateful God. We need to bring the fight to their doorsteps.

You have half a million people who opposed this travesty. . .announce to the public that, in order to help good christians "protect marriage" - you are starting a petition drive to outlaw divorce, refuse to recognize second marriages, and force Texas citizens to abide by the vows they have spoken in church marriages.

Then throw morality at them with every book of the Bible.

Announce an amendment that will legalize incestual relationships, since the Bible allowed those. It's time for these morally correct Texans to live the moral lives they claim to possess.

where some Texans can see it.

When it happened in my state, I wanted to move that morning. It's a new feeling about my region and my regional identity that never felt before, and I haven't felt the same since. It's petty and it's sick and it's bad enough when people say such thoughtless things, but for them to actively vote on it...yeah, fuck 'em. I said it a lot that day too.

but I also know that life is full of amazing decent caring wonderful people who don't make the news for their good deeds.

They may not pull people from burning houses every day or rescue them from highway pileups, or give them shelter from the hurricanes, (because hurricanes and pileups and house fires really don't happen all that often) but they do their acts of heroism with every bit as much bravery and conviction; just more quietly.

Thank you for yours, and for your support - it is deeply appreciated. Keep up the good work!

That was to me? Thanks, this sure is a good place to find nice people. :hug:

I am so ashamed to be a Texan right now. In GD I posted what my grandmother sent me and my replies to her regarding this Proposition. She is a fundie. I cannot understand her reasoning. I don't understand how someone can be so hateful and then claim to be a Christian.

Here is the link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5297462

Let your life and family be the best disproof of this petty, small-minded bigotry!

You have over half a million supporters, just in Texas. You are not alone, you are not part of a marginal minority! Live your life with pride and dignity. I'll laugh my ass off the first time you ask someone who wants your help how they voted on the proposition!

We'll keep fighting for justice. But take this one small hope. My mother is gay. She has two kids and three grandkids. Eventually we will all be voting age. So will your kids. So will your kids friends! Fewer and fewer youth today support that kind of bigotry, particularly regarding sexual preference. If we keep fighting for small changes, the big ones are coming, I promise! Eventually, it is the bigots who will be marginalized, living in isolated pockets of hate.

I can't find the statistics right now, but here's a basic truth to hit those assholes with. If you look at the ten states with the fewest divorces, unwanted pregnancies, lowest # abortions / 1000 people, etc., almost all the real "family values" measures, it's the progressive, BLUE states that dominate the lists, generally 7 out of 10, with virtual locks on the top 3 to 5 spots on those lists! They can spout their shit all they want, but it's us LIBERALS who actually get supporting healthy families and individuals right!!! :grouphug:

Being at the mercy of someone else, can be lousy. I know. And I too have spent literally years in a state similar to yours. Stupidity combined with power is a rotten thing. It almost always goes the wrong way.

Living in Bush's America, we share your feelings, unfortunately. Remember that. You have a lot of people on your side in more than one way.

Now what are you going to do. What can you do. Those aren't questions. My frustration and yours too know no bounds. But today I wake up and fear that tomorrow will be just as bad. And I want better. We want better. How can you do that? I'm not doing very well with my own answers, so I feel unqualified to pester you with my words. But I know two things- hate is not what we want to be doing. And there is some kind of solution, however ridiculous. Let me also say something else. I know that as unrelenting as life can seem, there is hope. Even as I write this, my mind is laughing at me. You could die before seeing a country with open minded people who are free thinkers. But maybe hope in itself is worth something.

and I'll still rescue cats and elderly neighbors and buy girl scout cookies, because I know that I have to be principled too, no matter what, or I can't expect it of others and then be disappointed when they aren't.

Having said that - the answer to the question of "what are we going to do" is to not accept it. America wouldn't be "America" if we had just accepted that King & Country made the rules.

If we hadn't shrugged off colonialism and monarchy we would not be who we are today, and if we hadn't fought against unjust laws we would still be hanging people in the south for being the wrong color and making them sit on the back of the bus and drink at different fountains.

You have to believe that you are right and principled, really believe, and practice it, every day. Otherwise, if everyone who considers themselves good believes you to be evil and amoral, you might just turn out that way.

More than hope, it's perseverance. One day, as other posters here have stated, people will wake up and say "what the heck was the big deal anyway?", and that will be our children and their children who are a lot more accepting of melting-pot differences than the generations before them. I guess that's hope too . . . :hi:

You helped ME out. What might seem so obvious, isn't to me. I'm a bit slow. Sometimes I feel so helpless I forget the concept that I am somebody. I can be part of the change. We aren't powerless. The hard part is how slow it usually is.
By the way, it means a lot to me when someone responds. Thanks. We're in this together.

Where the British Government declared non British controlled marriages illegal. If you do not remember this scene, I strongly advise you to watch it again. Gandhi took the correct road. As a Christian I often have to ask myself 'What Would Gandhi Do.' There are so few role models for Christianity who are Christians, I have to borrow from other faiths.

unless I'm attacked first, of course. But neither do I believe I am in imminent physical danger - I think you can get crazy that way and become as dark and dangerous as the world you fear.

While I have great respect for Ghandi, I also have great respect for human life and health, including the life and health of my loved ones. In no circumstance would I make a decision to follow non-violent resistance if the life of someone I loved was in danger from someone else's violence. I have been to India and to Pakistan and to many other countries and circumstances where human life was valued at nothing by people with the power to oppress them into nothingness. Those kind of oppressors do not care about the principles of non-violent resistance - that only works against people who actually have a conscience and marginal respect for human life and suffering. There is a time and place for every method of resistance.

I extend that to the metaphorical arena as well.

So while I appreciate much and most of what Ghandi was about in most circumstances, I cannot swallow his philosophy whole. But don't worry - I'm not going to go all Rambo just yet. ;)

I'm hesitant to even call it a rant because something about the word "rant" has a subtle undertone of being over the top or overly emotional. You are not either. The righteous indignation you feel is utterly understandable and completely warranted.

Fuck the haters. I'm so fucking sick of the venomous bile they inflict on everyone else through their fear and bigotry.

Good luck my friend. I could not agree with you more.

..."Bleak winds shred rainclouds -
sky rattles with discordant sounds
but I can still hear
the sound of bigotry
as heavy wooden church doors
clang shut
locking people in
locking people out
And the bitter taste of fanaticism
taints the very air we breathe".

Still "breathin the air" here in Texas but finding it hard not to choke on these days.

If so, turn that anger into action.

Let's think of this as a battle lost, not a war over.

Remember Rosa Parks, Dr. King, Gandhi, et al. It didn't happen overnight.

And, friend, I am with you for the long haul.

Thank you for saying so eloquently what I've been thinking.

:yourock:

Use all the legal means necessary, wills, powers of attorney, both names on bank accounts, deeds, etc. to protect your family. All
I can say is keep up the good fight. I can imagine the hurt and anger you feel, and I feel it with you. You are on fire with righteous anger, and you will succeed. I wish I could say this too shall pass, but I'm not so sure. We are in the midst of a huge backlash of hatred and we will have to fight our way through it.

If the FMA somehow is passed by Congress and ratified, that will be the final nail in the coffin of the idea that was America. Many GLBT people will flee the country, trade will plummet, and Atwoods dystopia in The Handmaids Tale will be a big step closer to reality. We must fight with all we have to stop that.

I'm sorry for the pain that inspired them. I know very well what you're talking about how outrageously presumptious it is for others to believe they deserve to make these decisions for us and that we are "out of line" even reasonably to counter their rhetoric and actions. We have to speak, we have to act or we are cooperating with their evil.

Peace and strength to you and your family.

Because you've articulated exactly how I feel right now.

Yes, in time, same-sex marriage will be commonplace in the United States. But I believe it will be...in all 50 states...at least 30 years. At least.

Meanwhile...this. Seeing this hate and bigotry being officially sanctioned.

I'm pissed and upset and angry right now.

I can't say anymore...because you've already said it.

And this is on the greatest page. I'll add my vote anyway.

Thank you, people of Texas who voted against this disgusting, hateful piece of shit state sanctioned bigotry.

And for the Texans who voted for it...go fuck yourselves. If there is a hell, I hope you burn in it forever.

Here is a thought, one I am considering for Washington State, should the state Supreme Court rule against equal marriage in the overdue decision on Anderson v King County.

Propose an initiative that will extends, logically, every bit of rhetoric proposed by those who believe that marriage should remain the exclusive right of heterosexuals:

* All marriage license applications must include an affidavit by both parties, attesting that there are no known restrictions on their ability to procreate. Failure to attest would result in no marriage license. Attesting falsely (ie vastectomy, tubal ligation, on medication such as Accutaine where pregnancy is proscribed, etc) is an act of felony fraud.

* All marriages extant at the time the initiative comes in to effect have three years from that date to file a Notice of Live Birth with the state. Marriages entered after the initiative comes in to effect will have three years from the date of the marriage. Marriages entered in to outside of the state are not exempted if the married couple lives within the state at least 50% of the time.

* Failure to file said Notice will result in the marriage licence being revoked and the marriage declared null and void. Children from the current marriage will count. Children from a previous marriage, along with foster and adopted children, will not count. After all, marriage exists solely for the purpose of procreation.

* Out of state marriages, regardless of residency, will not be recognized in any way unless the married couple complies with procreation and notification requirements. While the state may not invalidate marriages entered out of state, it will refuse to recognize as valid any marriage that does not comply.

* When a given marriage results in children, divorce is not permitted for any reason. Marriages entered in to in-state shall continue to be valid if there is issue from that marriage -- with possible charges of bigamy, etc. -- even if a divorce is finalized in another state.

Now, does that cover all the homophobic BS, or did I miss anything?

I am almost hoping that the state Supreme Court rules against us. It would be soooooo damn funny to watch the bigots being strangled by their own bigotry.

you must provide incontrovertible proof of heterosexuality, you know, like a genetic test, three independently corroborated references by registered heterosexuals, etc. There will be no more gay men marrying lesbian women (like in the Top Secret Gay Agenda) having little fruity babies all over the place.

:evilgrin:

Isn't that what they mean by gay marriage? :shrug: oh what a world, what a world ;)

"Little fruity babies." Sounds like a Cabbage Patch candy flavor.:toast:

Maybe if you just stopped being gay, everything would work out better for you. Think about it. It's just like when the poor bitch about how hard life is when they're poor. What idiots! All they have to do is go work harder, make more money. I think your best hope is to just stop the whole gay thing and get back to what God planned for you, to be a baby factory.

Now if giving up your gayitude is not your thing, then why not try making out with your man-freind in front of Tom Delay's church. Hell grab your man's ass, tickle his balls with your tongue and then tell them you'll be here every Sunday until they pass a law reckognizing that your are an American with the same rights of privacy that they have. Since they wish to infringe on yours legal rights, you're going to infringe on thier twisted visions of morality. If it were me, I wouldn't get real mad. I'd get real gay and shove it down thier throats like a hot throbbing sausage.

Rage and pain is fully called for. I recommend you send this as an LTTE to a local paper. The sick 75% need to hear the truth of what they've done.

:hug:

It stuns me that people can be so mean and degrading to homosexuals for something in which we have no say in (our homosexuality was born with us). That's probably why I'm not out yet.

Move to Massachusetts, and have a huge wedding to help out local small businesses. Register to vote, and help us kick Mitt the Shitt out of the "coah-nah office" (corner office) of the State House!

We don't go for that bigoted crap up this way. The winters are tough, but the other seasons are fantastic!

I'd lobotomize these fools if I could... (then again, maybe THAT'S the problem....!)

You have written one of the most powerful posts I have read here at the DU. There is nothing, not a word, that I could offer to change the situation that you describe. Every word you write is true.

Let me offer you this: We too, here in California, had the obligatory voter initiative to "ban" gay marriages several years back. It was financed not just by the evangelicals, but also by the Mormon and Catholic churches. It passed here, too. The only non-gay demographic group to vote against it here was, of course, Jewish-Americans who opposed the mean-spirited initiative nearly 8 to 1.

I'm certain that it made a lot of people feel good. It made them feel smug. Made them feel superior and better.

And then, after time passed...I think it made them feel sick of themselves and embarrassed by their secret hatred. Since that time the courts have come to bat for gays and lesbian unions with one grand slam after the next. Even the California State Legislature finally grew some nerve and began to vote favorably to extend civil rights to all citizens here in the Golden State.

Sui generis, I was particularly taken by your words, "I want to know which way you voted". Believe me, after the California Initiative every gay person I know wore every friend and stranger down with snide and punitive comments. I know because I did myself.

I think you must be one remarkable person. I am most impressed with your dignity and sense of self-worth. The one American I hold in highest esteem is Frederick Douglass. No chains, no servitude, no insult, no nothing ever, ever made him feel less of a man than he knew himself to be.

You have just as much right to suck the sweet oxygen under the great blue skies of Texas as the rest of them. Don't ever give them an inch. They will adjust in time because they have no choice. I admire you.

No doubt people will come to their senses in a few years or decades and figure out that it was none of their business to begin with, or some other group will weigh in with something equally as intrusive to their lives and they will understand just how far they've overstepped.

There will be lawsuits - I will probably be one of them. The law gives preferential treatment to the status of marriage, regardless of whether marriage is between heterosexual people or not. Therefore the law doesn't REALLY care whether I'm gay or not, just whether I'm married or not, and it is therefore claiming to follow tradition by insisting that a gay man married to a lesbian woman with no offspring is better than two people (of any sex) who love each other being married, and that directly violates my constitutional rights as an American without once making reference to my sexual orientiation.

We will get our equal rights, eventually, one way or another.

I still feel a deep anger that a bunch of judgemental busybodies has essentially established for me how I may or may not live and conduct my private life, and have written discrimination against my children and my partner into the constitution of Texas on the basis that I am not married to someone of the opposite sex, regardless of my orientation.

In an absurd way, it's kind of like being told you can't get married because of your eye color, or your hair color, or because you pee standing up. You can change them, certainly, with artifice, but the essential truth of your hair or eye color cannot be changed, and the private "choice" you make about how you pee should have no bearing on your ability to be a productive member of a legal marriage.

:hi:

I just joined this site today, and I've been reading everything here. Sul's post is exaclty how I've been feeling the last few days. I really appreciate all the support and especially your post. I just read Fredrick Douglass' biography several months ago, and he was a pretty amazing man.

I will strive to be more like him.

It's my oxygen, too! :-)

:hi:

Did you read a biography or his own "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself"?

I wish every American knew more about this amazing man. Glad to meet another Douglassphile here at the DU!

---------

"The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

"This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. In the light of these ideas, Negroes will be hunted at the North, and held and flogged at the South so long as they submit to those devilish outrages, and make no resistance, either moral or physical. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must certainly pay for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others."

----Frederick Douglass, 1857

I will never understand anyone who finds "comfort" in a religion of hate. So easy for them to deny the dignity of an entire group of people, based on ugly hate words in a 2000 year old peice of writing from a culture that was deeply hierarchical, violent and misogynistic, xenophobic and homophobic.

I think liberals are the advanced beings in this world; conservatives are hanging on to an outdated world of fear and separation. Living as a gay, lesbian, bi or trans person in a world of prejudice takes courage. It is to be in the vanguard of those who demonstrate to the world what real human dignity is.

this, :hug: (a great big one) and my commitment to never stop fighting for what is right. I will accept nothing less than equal rights for everyone. Right now this is the big battle and we aren't doing very well but I think if we are able to keep it up we can change it enough that the next generation who mostly do not seem to feel this certain prejudice will undo it entirely and soon. I hope I live to see that day. On that day I will feel free also because as long as this kind of crap is going on none of us are really free. It is wrong and many of us out here are with you every step. I doubt that helps much now but we will do it eventually. Wish it was today.

I am so sorry.

How can you make someone feel better about being pissed on by their own country? :-(

All I can do is offer a bit hug and let you know that I'm on your side 100%! :hug: I will do everything I can to educate other people about the issue and to fight against the bigoted bullshit that's sweeping the nation.

I'm not gay, but my niece is. She's a great person who's been in a committed relationship for the last two years with another great person. They don't have any children at the moment, but they have several pets and they just bought a house. They are both hard-working and generous people who often go out of their way to help others. I don't understand why some people are so threatened by them. :-(

I know it probably seems like the whole country is against you at the moment, but it's not. There are plenty of people like me who support you and hopefully, we'll be able to change things for the better in the near future. Hang in there. :hug:

"The rest of you three out of four Texans, you can go fuck yourselves, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart, for being the apathetic fucking shitbag throwback worthless waste of piss poor protoplasm that you are. I wouldn't give you my piss to drink if you were dying in the desert today, and I mean Darwin will get you, with a little help from me, and believe me today, I am volunteering."

You are a mind reader :)

Magnificent post!!!!!!!!!!

:yourock::applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

Sui, your message mirrors my emotions exactly. I have been so angry about this, so hurt, so betrayed. Bottom line, gay or not, I am a fu**ing American. AMERICAN. You know, born in the land of the FREE. I don't agree with the way Christians live, but I don't vote for laws that would prohibit that lifestyle. Hell, they're allowed to preach their hypocritical rhetoric on television! And that is freedom of speech. I defend their right to do that.

So why, in Jesus' name, are they trying to make more illegal ('cause let's face it, it was illegal before) the things I believe? What the hell did I ever do to them? I don’t even like Christians, so goodness knows I’m not in their lives enough to piss them off.

I had a long talk with a couple of friends about what to do about it, now that Prop. 2 passed. I mean, we need to freakin' DO something. We have gotten so damned complacent these days. Why aren't we pissed off enough to do something? Yes, I too, want to beat up people and kill all the ignorant, religious, f***s who are behind all this.

I also want to stop paying my taxes--I mean, my money is good enough for them, but my rights aren't? It's completely illogical.

But we have to mobilize. React. DO SOMETHING. Economic boycott. Stop paying taxes. Protest. Have a day where no gays in Texas go to work or spend money. Will anyone do that? I would. It’s like Homo Skip Day--hair won’t get done, houses won’t be decorated, packages won’t be delivered, logos will not be created that day. Get the White Wing--I mean Right Wing--where it hurts--in the wallet.

Will anyone do this?

That reminds me of a great line from a lesbian comedienne (whose name I can't recall):

"If homosexuality is an illness, let's all call in gay to work. 'Sorry. Can't come in today. Still gay.'"

Seriously, though, I would support an action like that (but since I'm currently unemployed, my participation would likely pass unnoticed). It would be wonderful to have a day when all the LGBTs just didn't show up and the country would grind to a halt.

On the other hand, I'm cynical enough to realize that trying to get four gay guys organized to go shopping is difficult enough, not to mention what it would be like to get a few million organized. But I think there's a LOT of anger out there just waiting for the right spark to set things in motion. It's just no telling what that spark will be.

Oh ... and by the way ... a belated welcome to DU! :hi:

We have to be who we are, and not turn away from the public eye.

We have to be strong in our relationships, respectable in our jobs and our daily activities and you have to touch as many lives as possible.

It's xenophobia - the cities and dense urban areas voted to defeat Proposition 2. The suburbs and rural areas voted to discriminate against us, but that's because they think we're children or at the very least, no adults. They think we're not "mature" like they are, or defective, or at the very least, not "worthy" of the same rights that they are, and it's really quite annoying to them that we're even allowed to vote.

We have to show them that not all of us are buttless chaps wearing drag queen oil changing mullet diesel dyke girlie men who fuck a dozen guys (or gals) a night.

We are soldiers who die in service to this country and even admirals (more than one), airline captains, policemen, firemen, judges, EMT's and emergency room doctors and pediatricians. We are hairdressers and CEOs, janitors, and wall street investors, and yes interior decorators and architects and massage artists, and some of us are homeless and some of us live in mansions and some of us are single and happy and some of us are married with children and happy and we are NO DIFFERENT in our dreams and hopes and fears than any other American.

We have to show them these things.

Welcome to DU! Many happy postings.