me, unplugged

maybe i was too presumptuous. i really thought that california was going to pave the way towards being more accepting of those with different lifestyles. there are so many thoughts tumbling around in my head right now that i’m having a difficult time sorting through them all.

okay, to back up, i’m speaking in regards to proposition 8, which was on the california ballot in this election. a few years ago, california legalized gay marriage, which was simply amazing and a huge sigh of relief for me that maybe, finally, some people somewhere thought that we should maybe, i don’t know, progress as a nation.  but then proposition 8 reared its ugly head, created by people who…believe in the sanctity of marriage? and they have decided that they want to pass this bill to ban gay marriage (although it doesn’t change the existing civil union laws, oddly). although the ballots are still being counted, it’s pretty safe to say that the bill passed, and gay marriage in california is no longer.

what. the. fuck.

could someone PLEASE tell me why this issue matters so much to straight homophobes folks so much?  i’ve always done my best to see both sides of an issue, which i think is a good thing (although it can tend to make me unsure of where to stand when i see both sides’ points clearly).  but on this issue?  i really have no idea why it brings out so much hate from the conservative set.  what is it about gay men and lesbians being able to marry that so threatens straight marriage?

i don’t want to hear that crap about it being unnatural, because anyone who has done the slightest amount of research knows that homosexuality happens all the time in nature. and it’s not because sex should only be for those that can procreate either, because if sex was created solely for procreation, then it wouldn’t be so damn awesome, and the world’s population would also be exponentially larger than it is now.

the only thing that i can think of for someone not wanting homosexuals to have the right to marry is because either they are afraid of what they don’t know, or because they are elitist assholes who believe that homosexuals are not worthy of loving, or being loved, so much that they should be allowed to get married.

google, apple, clear channel, brad pitt, steven spielberg, you are to be commended for your donations to the cause, and your willingness to take a stand against proposition 8. to do so was a risk when the majority of the nation (and your state, apparently) seems opposed to it.

for the most part, my indignation is personal. throughout my entire childhood and up until college, i have been treated differently than everyone else. growing up asian in a small caucasian town makes a person stick out. i have dealt with peers shouting racial slurs at me, making wild assumptions about me because of my ethnicity, and i spent quite a few years feeling like an abnormal outcast.  i am not one of those people who looks back on high school fondly, and not because of how people treated me, but because i was ashamed of who i was and how i looked.

it has taken me years to come to terms with the fact that all of those people who treated me badly were relatively ignorant, and are probably still living very small lives in the same town in which i grew up. i have gotten to the point where i’m happy with my appearance, but it’s been a long and difficult road for me to come to terms with that fact. (and honestly, i still have slip-ups where i don’t understand how anyone could ever want to be with me, even though i also believe that there is someone for everyone.)

so when i see people being marginalized or treated like less than a person because they are different, it makes me so livid i want to scream and cry in anger at the same time, especially when it happens to people that i love.

the 1960s had the civil rights movement, and i suppose the 2000s will be the gay rights movement.  and i am on the bandwagon.