The Blessings of Liberty

If you've been paying attention, you know that I am in Santa Cruz.  If you're really been paying attention and have been reading this blog for any amount of time, you also know that I used to live in Santa Cruz for many years.  You get bonus points and a gold star if you could have also told me that not only did I live in Santa Cruz, I was quite an activist while I lived there and showed up for protests and demonstrations of all sorts.  Especially the ones that were about equality for dogs.

Well, Saturday was about equality of an entirely different matter.  Truthfully, from the moment I arrived in Santa Cruz with my Utah license plates on my car I have been apologizing for the passage of Proposition 8.  For those of you who do not know, Proposition 8 amended the California state constitution to restrict the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman.  It overrode a recent California Supreme court decision that had recognized same-sex marriage in California as a fundamental right.

There is evidence that the passage of this Proposition was deeply funded by members of the Mormon Church.  The same Mormon Church that claims my sister, NeverNakedBeth as a practicing member and that claims Utah as its motherland. 

The moment Proposition 8 passed, there was outrage among the GLBT community as well as thousands of others and many people have called for a boycott of Utah.  Not just the Mormon contributors to Proposition 8, but of the entire state of Utah.  The thinking is that all of Utah should pay the price for housing the folks who decided to support the passage of this backward thinking Proposition with their pocketbooks.

Now, I'm all for boycotts.  I'm all for protests.  I'm all for getting in there and causing a ruckus when a ruckus is due.  I actually marched here on Saturday morning with all my fellow Santa Cruz activists to bring attention to just how wrong I believe this Proposition happens to be.

However, I believe that a boycott of the entire state of Utah is also just as misguided as those folks in Utah who decided to pull out their checkbooks and write a big fat check in support of a Proposition that wasn't even on the ballot in their OWN state.

The entire state of Utah did not cause Proposition 8 to pass.  There are many, and I mean this in all sincerity, many GLBT folks right in Salt Lake City who are just as saddened by the passage of Proposition 8 as those of you who happen to be blessed enough to live in California.  Your brothers and sisters in Utah are actually on the front lines of dealing with Mormon religious hypocrisy every single day.  Many of them were raised as Mormons and have been banished by their very own church.  So not only are they not allowed to marry in the state of Utah, they also are not free to practice the religion they choose!

Now, I know that marriage is a very important and personal subject for so many people.  Having just dissolved my own marriage, it seems to me, honestly, that perhaps we're all caught up in semantics here and that this could possibly be easily solved if we just simply took religion out of the equation.

I am always one for getting the church out of my affairs.  It does seem to me that if we could all wrap our minds around the fact that any two people, male, female, bisexual, transgendered, Black, White, Latino, Chinese, Indian, Aborigine, Whomever who wish to commit to one another for the rest of their lives be allowed to go to the government and receive a license to do so and form a civil-union be able to do just that.  It should not matter to any of the rest of us, frankly, who the two people are or how they wish to form their union.  That's between the two of them!

If they want to MARRY, however, they should then have to approach a church.  Which church?  I do not even care.  If two women can find a church that will bless the marriage they wish to have, why on earth should ANY OF US care?  The Mormon Church does not have to bless the marriage of anyone it does not see fit, right? It can even currently prevent people from marrying in the temple if it doesn't feel they are worthy.  A Catholic church has hoops you jump through before you're allowed to marry in a Catholic ceremony.  I'm pretty certain most religious organizations have some tenets you follow in order to marry in their church!  If you can find a church willing to marry you and you happen to be marrying your life partner who also happens to be the exact same sex as you, well, that's between you, your church, your partner and the god you choose to worship.  It has nothing, and I mean nothing, to do with me and my dogs.  Unless you want us to come and throw rice or something.  Then by all means, we'll be there.  We love weddings!

So, please.  Let's just let people, all people in America, no matter who they are or whom they would like to join with, form a civil union that is always blessed in the eyes of the government.  If they want to also be married in their church, let them do it if their church will bless them with such an arrangement.

Honestly, we have such larger issues to worry about right now, don't you think?  Global warming, the food shortage, the wars plaguing our planet!  Do we really need to worry ourselves to the tune of approximately $85 million dollars (so far) about who is getting married to whom?  Do we all realize how many organic school lunches we could have provided for all those children of all those couples no matter who they were with that funding?

I'd rather buy them an organic lunch and let them live with their two moms.  Think about it.  Really.  Please.

Comments

[bornfamous]

Yeah, but leaves out atheists who want to marry without the hypocrisy of going to a church. Civil unions just aren't the same. And marriage is not just a religious institution; it's a social one.

[Astrogirl]

With all due respect to bornfamous, that argument doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If we want to get a clear definition of the terms (and I think we should), "marriage" is the religious ceremony, "civil union" is the civil ceremony. If you are an atheist, then... you probably wouldn't be getting married, as you wouldn't have a religious ceremony. So essentially, atheists are not left out of the religious institution of "marriage" (unless they're gay), except by their own choice.

I do agree that the concept of "marriage" is a social institution, but that definition refers simply to the state of being joined together in a publicly acknowledged contract. Whether that contract is civil (common-law marriages) or religious or both, is not the issue. I think the confusion comes about when people refer to a husband and wife (whether joined in a religious ceremony or civil, or none at all in the case of common-law marriages) as "married". This is fine; but for legal consideration, it makes sense to differentiate the two. After all, my husband and I have been "married" for 10 years, despite never being joined in a religious ceremony. Yet everyone who knows us would say we are married. Fine; but we are no more or less married than two women who may have been joined by the state of California before P8 passed.

I agree with you Jen - "marriage" is a religious institution. A "civil union" is a state institution. We need to clarify things, and get government out of the issuing of marriage licenses.

[tree4yew]

It would be nice, like you say, if we didn't have to deal with things like Prop 8. It's ridiculous really! It is equally ridiculous that we can't stroll around town in the nude! Anyway, we do have to deal with anti-gay things like prop 8 unfortunately. A couple I am friends with just happened to get married in that little window where it was legal this summer. They were so happy! What a crushing blow to have it become illegal so soon after! We NEED to fight for the legality of gay marriage, we really do.
Speaking of religion and marriage, it seems most religions aren't too fond of gay marriage. They may tolerate it at best. The wedding I went to this summer was a Religious Science wedding. This religion, founded by Ernest Holmes, fully embraces the joining of two women in a wedding ceremony! I was totally awed and overjoyed to learn this! That there is a religion out there that is not only accepting, but EMBRACING of people's choice of a life partner, whatever that choice may be, is a wonderful thing!