Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Things Can Only Get Better...

I'm sure by now all of you have heard the depressing/obnoxious news that California decided to uphold Proposition 8. I was pretty angry about it, but through my anger, I was happy to hear that the 18,000 married gays of Cali would still be recognized as married. I also wasn't feeling like all was lost just yet, because I knew that there was a bill in Illinois, called the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act, or HB2234, that Illinois gays were hoping would be passed before the end of the spring session. In a nutshell, HB 2234 defines "civil union" as a legal relationship between 2 persons, of either the same or opposite sex. The passage of this bill would have been a big step towards equal rights for homosexuals in Illinois. Yesterday, I got the titty-twister news that Illinois lawmakers decided to re-refer HB2234 to the Rules Committee...basically, HB2234 is a horse w/ a broken leg, and re-referring it to the Rules Committee is shooting it to put it out of it's misery.

Maybe that's a little dramatic of me, but I am a gay, it can't be helped. After all, re-referring a bill to the Rules Committee means that the bill MAY BE considered dead, not necessarily all the way dead, so perhaps HB2234 is a daddy long legs with all of it's legs pulled off...may be considered dead. Either way you look at it, Illinois gays are still considered second class citizens of the state, and obviously the country. Hard working, tax paying, second class citizens.

What continues to baffle me in this debate over queer marriage is that religion, yes re-f*cking-ligion, is the ONLY argument against it. Religion...religion...religion...yes, I'm going to continue to say "religion" until someone tells me where "separation of church and state" went. Bring it back, I miss it. Apparently we don't actually follow that legal doctrine anymore, because "Church" really seems to run things around here, and "Church"? Is kind of an asshole. "Church" is that bitchy girl in the bathroom at your first high school MORP who, upon seeing your delicious fade, asked you if you were in the right bathroom, which then made everyone in the bathroom laugh at you and buried you further into the closet. "Church" is the guy at Joe's on Weed street, who hocked a loogie all over your back because you were a gay girl in a sweater vest. "Church" can go to hell, as far as I'm concerned.

Listen, I'm all for religious freedom, I'm all for various religions having the power to decide which couples they will recognize as united in holy matrimony. And I know that those spouters of hate, and preachers of selective rules from their "Bible" are just trying to make themselves feel better about their own sins, and they are free to do that. But those people are missing the point. I'm not asking for my partnership with The Joyous One to be recognized by these religions, I could care friggin less. Where I want to us to be recognized is under the law, just like any straight couple that's been united in a non-religious ceremony. As far as I know, the Bible is not the "law". I've said that before, I will keep saying that until someone can prove me wrong. The Bible is not the "law."

Just last week, Joe and I talked "gay marriage" for the first time. I stand on the side of the fence that wants to be married, or at the very least I want the same rights as all the straight couples out there. Sometimes I'm fine with gay partnerships being called "civil unions", while straight partnerships get the "marriage" tag. Then I flip my script, and I think anyone who isn't united in a religious ceremony doesn't get to be called "married," and we should change all non-religious unions to "civil unions". Other times I want my "marriage" to be called a "marriage" and I feel like I won't be happy with it being called anything else. Does that make it seem like I don't know what I want? Perhaps, but I do know what I'm not allowed to have, and that's equal rights for The Joyous One and I, and our partnership, or whatever I feel like calling it today.

1 comment:

Jessica Cakuls said...

Outstanding, Meta. I learned things about you that I think only your passion for this issue would have ever surfaced. I'm glad you started this blog and that you have this forum for expression. And I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment.