A Marriage of Equals, part II

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply doesn't work," Kent Brockman, The Simpsons, "Bart's Comet"

I must say that I'm starting to agree. The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments, was put in place after our wise, if imperfect, forefathers realized that they had to protect against the tyranny of the majority. They had to keep the mobs from exerting undue pressure on anyone who didn't agree with them, or was different from them. Yet, the framers, even with the foresight to protect speech, assembly, and even religion, failed to take into consideration how people of color or women were being trodden upon. Eventually minorities and women won their legal rights, though I would argue we are far from equal, and Native Americans would probably argue, and rightly so, that they have not been granted full rights--at least not the full rights of sovereign nations. However, homosexuals are still a deeply oppressed people. Anti-discrimination laws for homosexuals are not in place as they are for ethnic minorities and women, and we're all well aware that they aren't allowed to marry. And the battle for homosexual rights, including, and perhaps especially, the right to marry. Check out some articles:

Washington Upholds Ban on Same-Sex Marriage

Virginia's Anti-Gay amendment

and finally:

New York and Georgia rule out Same-Sex Marriage

New York's majority opinion was ridiculous, as readers of Dan Savage's advice column have already been told. To say that discriminating against homosexuals makes sense, since heterosexual couples have children and therefore need marriage may very well be the dumbest statement. . . well there are a lot of really dumb statements floating around these days, but it's still imbecilic. Gay people have children, even in states that ban them from adopting, through sperm donors and surrogate mothers. Plus, straight people can get married whether they want/are able to have kids or not. And the Republican gov., as well as his likely GOP successor, say they would veto any legislation that would give homosexuals the right to marry. Apparently it goes against the religious beliefs of millions of New Yorkers. Which, even if true, is irrelevant, given the whole separation of Church and State thing we have going on. I mean, what if my religion demands that homosexuals marry? Where's my religious freedom?!

Georgia is backwards. We all pretty much expected it. And don't come whining to me if you're from Georgia (and my sitemeter suggests you are not). If you didn't want to be called backward, you shouldn't have passed that amendment.

Washington's supreme court seems to have come to same conclusion as New York's. The legislature is free to legalize same-sex marriage, but the supreme court doesn't have the power to overturn the current laws. Which I suppose is better than being out and out bigoted, but it just seems that legislating against people based on their own, private, non-larcenous, non-violent, love/sex lives is a blatant violation of the civil liberties that this country supposedly holds dear.

Of course, Virginia is probably the worst of all. They have laws prohibiting same-sex marriage and civil unions, but just in case a few loving, committed same-sex couples sneak over the border anyway, they're passing an amendment that will make it possible to undermine the wills, living-wills, and power-of-attorney arrangements that same-sex couples make. If I could find the specific text of the document, I would give you the link and more information, but so far, no go.

So, here's our democracy at work. The majority uses its power to oppress the minority. Scary. A thousand times scarier than same-sex marriage ever was.