Right now I hate Alberta
Evolution classes optional under proposed Alberta law:
A controversial Alberta bill will enshrine into law the rights of parents to pull their children out of classes discussing the topics of evolution and homosexuality.
The new rules, which would require schools to notify parents in advance of “subject-matter that deals explicitly with religion, sexuality or sexual orientation,” is buried in a bill that extends human rights to homosexuals. Parents can ask for their child to be excluded from the discussion.
“This government supports a very, very fundamental right and that is parental rights with respect to education,” said Premier Ed Stelmach.
The public secular school system allowing religious people to pick and choose which parts of human rights and rational thought are going to be exercised in the public square??
They don’t like scientific facts, and they hate homosexuals, so instead of having to notice any of them, they can just walk around with their hands over their ears going “Lalalalala, I can’t hear or see you!”
Christian Shari’a law! Enshrined right into a secular state!
I am beyond disgusted. Today I hate my home province more than I can possibly express.
I wish all those bigoted, anti-democratic, narrow-minded wingnut Christian Taliban neo-Cons would move to Iran where they belong and where they can impose all their anti-human beliefs on each other to their hearts’ content.
Rick Warren is a Christian liar
Good little Christian pastor Rick Warren was on Larry King on CNN, on April 6. Here’s a transcript. Please note his remarks a little over halfway down in the transcript:
I am not an anti-gay or anti-gay marriage activist. I never have been, never will be.
During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never — never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop 8 was going.
Then go watch this YouTube video of Rick Warren endorsing and supporting Prop Hate, and encouraging people to do the same:
A big thank you to Tonya J for the heads-up on this.
Great news today for my gay friends!
Vermont has done it! And they did it by choice.
Today, that American state became the fourth in the country to recognize equal marriage for its citizens. After its legislative bodies passed a bill legalizing equal marriage, the Governor, Jim Douglas, vowed to veto it, and yesterday he went through with the threat.
But less than 24 hours later, the state Senate voted 23-5 to override his veto, and the House recorded a 100-49 vote to override — the absolute minimum they had to have to do so. And now it’s law.
And there was much rejoicing throughout the land!
Of course, the Republican Douglas couldn’t be gracious about it, and grabbed the opportunity to try to make citizens resent gay people:
“What really disappoints me is that we have spent some time on an issue during which another thousand Vermonters have lost their jobs.”
Riiiiight. A Republican governor all concerned about joblessness. Which was of course why he vetoed the bill so even more time had to be spent on it. Riiiiight.
Vermont is the only state so far who legislated equal marriage into existence. Three other states recognize equal marriage (Massachusetts, Iowa, and Connecticut), but it was the courts who legalized it in those places.
And guess what! The married gays and lesbians from those four states will now have their marriages recognized in Washington, DC! The District of Columbia Council voted unanimously today to recognize same-sex marriages from other states.
Of course there’s the little matter that DC, like New York, recognizes these marriages but doesn’t let these people get married there. How stupid is that? But surely it won’t be long now.
As this Carnal Nation article mentions, two other states seem to be pretty close to recognizing equal marriage as well:
New Hampshire’s House passed a marriage bill in March, which now awaits a Senate vote. In New Jersey, Gov. Jon Corzine has pledged to sign a gay marriage bill that has been introduced in its legislature.
Isn’t it a great day for gays and lesbians today? And the great thing is that Americans now have the second-largest country (as far as land mass goes) in the world sitting just up north of them, proving that the sky doesn’t fall and the earth doesn’t swallow you up if you give equal rights to all citizens. Now there are four states (and could soon be six, or even seven if California smartens up) that will demonstrate the same thing.
It’s going to get harder and harder to play the hysteria card and expect anyone to listen.
Proposition Hate donors, and Google Maps
Oh my. Look at what someone has done: created a mashup of Google Maps and the publically-available list of donors to California’s recent Proposition Hate 8 campaign to destroy gay and lesbian marriages and their families.
Every flag posted on one of the three maps for San Francisco, Orange Country, and Salt Lake City — waitaminnit, since when was Salt Lake City in California, dammit?? Ahem. As I was saying, every flag on each map represents one donor to the Prop Hate campaign.
Click on a flag, and the donor’s name comes up. It also lists who they work for, and how much they donated, each time they sent money. The flag is pinned to their address. You could walk up to their door if you wanted.
Is this an invasion of privacy? I’ve been mulling this all morning and have decided: NO. This information is already available to the public. Every bit of it.
And frankly — when someone has supported a campaign to destroy their fellow citizens’ rights, destroy their marriages, destroy their families — these anti-family-values people ought to be proud to stand up and be counted in public. Proud to stand up and look the people whose lives they’ve tried to destroy straight in the eyes.
Go. Click for a while. Know these people.
They’re skating in hell today
You’d better sit down for this.
Call it a Christmas present for gay and lesbian couples. President Bush signed the Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WRERA) two days before Christmas. The new law makes it mandatory for businesses to roll over retirement benefits to a same-sex partner in the event of the employee’s death. …
You wonder how somebody decent was substituted for George Dubya at this late date. Maybe it’s a secret part of the Obama transition; they got to insert a human being as a placeholder till Obama could make it official.
Whatever the case, this is no deathbed presidential conversion. Gays and lesbians are rejoicing, but I’m wondering, in the back of my mind, what the catch is, that hasn’t been publicized. I hope I’m wrong.
Still. It’s a step forward. Can’t wait to read about Bush’s base tearing into him with every vicious fang they possess. Should be fun.
Gays eat soup! What atrocity will they commit next??
Oh. my. GOD!
Campbell’s implies that gay people eat soup!!
Campbell Soup bought two 2-page ads in the December and January issues of The Advocate, the nation’s largest homosexual magazine. The ads promote their Swanson line of broth, and one of the ads highlights the lives of two lesbians, who are portrayed as being married, along with “their” (**) son. Other ads feature chefs from New York City.
Gay people eat soup! How dare they? Why doesn’t someone stop them? How did things get to this point?? Why hasn’t someone stopped them before they went this far?!?!
Won’t anyone think of the children??
(** By the way, a word to the Very Stupid People at the American (Anti-Every-)Family(-But-Theirs) Association: the son is as much “their” child as any adopted child even in your brand of family. Remember that, bigots.)
(Also by the way – I like this article much, much better: Campbell’s Soup Covers Itself With Honour.)
Saskatchewan man wants state to become church – i.e. refuses to marry a gay couple
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan marriage commissioner Orville Nichols thinks the government of Saskatchewan should allow him to refuse to perform marriages of two other citizens — even though the right of those two citizens to marry is the SECULAR law of the land and he is the representative of that SECULAR law.
In this article of November 25, 2008, he (through his lawyer) makes his argument:
Philip Fourie, Nichols’ lawyer, said the lawsuit demands the province give marriage commissioners the legal right to not perform same-sex marriages if it conflicts with their religious beliefs.
“This is clearly a horrible violation of Charter rights,” he said in a release Tuesday
“This problem can be easily fixed by simply allowing the commissioners a right to decline and pass on the ceremony request to another commissioner.”
Nope. Nuh uh. Noway, nohow.
By this same argument, a police officer can refuse to protect the safety of people he considers immoral, like prostitutes and junkies, because their lifestyle violates his religious beliefs and to protect them would be “condoning” how they live. By this argument, a surgeon in the ER can refuse to save the life of a gang member who has just been shot after he himself killed someone (eek! murder! a sin!).
Religious arguments cannot, can not, can NOT be used to justify a member of a secular profession refusing to follow the law of the land.
CAN. NOT.
“The government promised to be different but they are not acting any differently at all on this issue,” he said.
“The pendulum has swung too far in favour of same-sex people and against people of faith.”
Nuh uh, buckaroo. That whining “we’re being picked on, waaaah!” argument just doesn’t fly.
This man is a representative of the SECULAR law of this country. He doesn’t want to represent the SECULAR law of his country, he is perfectly, perfectly free to align himself with a religious institution, and perform marriages of only those people he approves of.
And to say that treating every bloody citizen in the country equally is “against people of faith” is an outrage and a lie. I invite both him and his lawyer to read one of my essays about why anti-gay people cannot use secular law to discriminate religiously against fellow citizens: “Arguments against equal marriage: #2 Same-sex marriages harm the ’sanctity’ of marriage.”
The law is secular explicitly for the PURPOSE of protecting everyone in this country – including Orville bloody Nichols — from having their rights violated by someone of faith, someone who might have some kind of power over him and who might think his deity wants him to prevent Nichols from doing something that is his right to do. The only reason Nichols doesn’t notice the benefits he dervies from secular law is because his faith is still the majority faith in this country.
But his faith, majority or not, still does not allow him to violate the law when he represents it in a secular capacity. He is perfectly free to perform all the marriages he approves of, as a minister or religious representative. The fact that he wants to extend his religious right in the secular realm demonstrates that he is either an idiot (the charitable interpretation) or that he’s whining because he can’t also be a tyrant. Which is, unfortunately, the more likely interpretation.
Sometimes the Karma just writes itself; or having a taste of your own medicine
One of the big, big financial backers of last week’s ballot Proposition to ban equal marriage in California was the Mormon church, which urged its members to send money to the campaign trying to strip these citizenship rights from their fellow citizens.
Not surprisingly, those citizens whose rights had finally been recognized after a long struggle, and now have been ripped away from them again with the support of this church, this bastion of the traditional one man-one woman marriage (and yes, that is sarcasm; read their history!), have gotten very upset. So they’ve started picketing Mormon temples in southern California.
And when they show up, the police shut the temple doors and prevent anyone from getting in — including Mormon couples arriving to have a Temple wedding that will make their marriage eternally sealed.
There’s an account of this activity in this article in L.A. Weekly: “Los Angeles Protests Stop Mormon Marriages.”
As the article says:
On Thursday, thousands of “No on 8″ protesters, most of whom were probably unaware of the importance of a temple, shut down the Los Angeles Mormon Temple on Santa Monica Boulevard in Westwood. For the entire day and into the night, the iconic building was surrounded by Los Angeles Police Department officers, who sealed off its perimeter so no one could enter or exit. “No on 8″ supporters will demonstrate again in Westwood on Sunday.
One rather feels like yelling, “NOW YOU KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE, OPPRESSORS!”
This church should have its tax exempt status utterly ripped away from it for blatantly and deliberately pushing politics as an official body (a big no no, legally and constitutionally). And of all people, this church should know what it’s like to be persecuted because one’s beliefs and practices don’t follow the norms of the surrounding majority. And it’s a fact that plural marriage is still in Mormonism’s holy books, described as an eternal decree of God, however they pretend it isn’t there these days. (It’s still in my copy of Doctrines & Covenants, at least, and since they proclaim that God’s word is eternal, well…)
But when one sees this church (and others, of course, like the Southern Baptists) keeping their tax status even though they are essentially political institutions these days, and when you see the crashing, self-righteous, oppressive, tyrannical hypocrisy of a church like the Mormon church that strips citizenship rights from their own fellow-citizens – you have to feel vindicated when they finally get a taste of their own medicine. Maybe if they were still experiencing full-fledged persecution themselves, they’d be reminded that they do not have the right (as American citizens or under God) to persecute other citizens.
For info on filing an IRS 501(c)(3) complaint against the Mormon church for its unconstitutional political activity, see this blog. Information about a great book by an American lawyer, arguing that equal marriage is constitutional, can be found here. And of course, I once again recommend my essays on equal marriage in this blog, starting here.
Arguments against equal marriage: #5 Equal marriage could change society drastically
The argument here is that equal marriage will change society too much and will be too disruptive. The argument sounds plausible at first, implying that this change should be made gradually, slowly adding rights and freedoms until complete equality is finally reached.
Except that, oddly, most advocates of this position never seem to be saying, “Let us give gays and lesbians equal marriage, but do it slowly, step by step.” No, their main argument seems to be, “This would change society too drastically, so let’s never do it at all.”
Which should be an instant red flag to anyone who’s paying attention. Because it demonstrates that it’s not the “disruption of society” they’re really worried about, at all. If that were their big worry, they would surely welcome the solution of making the change, but making it gradually. But they don’t welcome it. In fact, speaking anecdotally, I have heard far more gay and lesbian marriage advocates arguing for the gradual approach than heterosexuals. The problem gets addressed with agreement by gays and lesbians, and the heterosexuals ignore this. Because most of the people who use this argument do not want a solution to the perceived “problem”. They want to put a stop to the change altogether.
We should also point out that “A Law Changes Society Drastically” is no argument in itself to refrain from making a law. Society changed drastically when women were given the vote. Shall we rescind the vote for women? Society also changed drastically when the Canada Health Act was passed. When Alberta or Newfoundland joined Canada. When Worker’s Compensation was introduced.
In fact, society changes in one way or another with every single law passed in this country. (Kind of the whole point of any law, in fact.) Shall we refrain from making laws? Shall we repeal every single law ever made by parliament (or Congress), because it changed society?
It is clearly not “drastic change” that should be the criterion for whether or not a law should be made. Societies are apparently quite willing to undergo drastic change in some cases. So other considerations are far more important.
When Member of Parliament, John McKay, spoke against equal marriage while the debate was going on in Canada prior to legalization of equal marriage, he used many of the arguments we have already demolished: the gender requirement is paramount (despite how a same-sex couple actually functions the same way an opposite-couple does in these relationships); biological children have to be privileged over mere “legally recognized” children [implication: adoptees!], and so on. We already know how much weight these arguments carry, which is very little.
He also said this (see his entire speech here:
Margaret Somerville, the noted secular medical and legal ethicist, argues that the Government of Canada is proposing to change an inherent feature of a social institution. I would say that it is a critical feature. I would say it is a sine qua non, that which cannot exist without it: the opposite gender requirement. Doing so, Somerville argues, will have a direct impact on the life of the social institution, radically re-engineering marriage and directly affecting the work it does in society.
We’ve seen some of this before, as we discussed the “Differences” argument. Again, there is no weight to that part of it. But perhaps we should address something else he says on the same subject:
First, marriage will no longer act as a unique forum for interplay between men and women in which the gender gap is bridged to create stable bonds between men and women. Marriage is easily the best way in which men relate to women and is easily the best way in which women relate to men.
My response to this is an incredulous — WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH HOMOSEXUALS?? When a man is gay, Mr. McKay, he is simply not going to “relate to women” in the way you’re talking about. Ever. Period. Denying this man the right to marry the person he does relate to in that way is going to improve the way heterosexual men and women relate to each other…how, again…?
This is, plain and simple, either a stupid argument or a very evil one. McKay is arguing that if you deny homosexuals the right to marry, why then, they’ll finally straighten up and marry the opposite sex like they’re supposed to, dammit. Stupid, stupid argument, taking no account of the facts, but certainly acting as Mr. McKay’s wish fulfilment. It is clearly the existence of gay people at all that he is objecting to here, because in fact, he speaks as though they do not exist at all. They are not, and cannot be, any part of his “bridge between man and woman” argument. He has wiped them out of consideration altogether.
And he gives no reason why, when two men can marry each other, marriage cannot still be a “bridge” between some other, heterosexual, man and a woman. Why would men and women suddenly stop the interplay they now do, by way of marriage, if two guys down the street who they’ve never met have a similar interplay going on??
So back to McKay’s main complaint, stemming from that “interplay” he was talking about between men and women in marriage, which is apparently threatened by having the same “interplay” happening between two women or two men. The problem seems to be that in places where equal marriage has been introduced, he is right — heterosexuals seem to get married less. He cites his first example:
The Netherlands has had same sex marriage for the last five years. It should be noted that in the first three years of that bill, marriage declined among heterosexuals by 10% each and every year, and in the last year of 2004 it declined between 3% and 4%. There seem to be no other factors to explain this sudden drop in heterosexual attachment to the institution of marriage. Marriage is now dead in Denmark and 61% of children are born outside of marriage.
Two things. First: Denmark is a separate country from the Netherlands (and has not legalized equal marriage). So what is it doing here?? It’s irrelevant, unless he merely mis-spoke, which is a possibility.
Secondly: he hasn’t contrasted these statistics with the statistics for heterosexual marriage prior to legalizing equal marriage. Were the percentages steadily going up before legalization, and did a sudden turnaround? Were they going down, and this just continued that trend? He gives no context, no before-and-after, nothing. And what is that ten percent OF, by the way? Does he mean there were ten percent fewer marriages by number count, compared to number count in previous years? (E.g. 90 marriages that first year, compared to 100 the previous?) Perhaps there were fewer heterosexual individuals of marriageable age in the country to begin with, in those years, which would lower the numbers whether or not gay people got married. We don’t know, and McKay doesn’t give us that context. Or does he mean that of the eligible heterosexuals available to be married, 90 percent of them did get married that year, whereas 100 percent married the previous year? We don’t know, and he gives us no context.
His other example, Quebec, is somewhat bizarre:
Quebec has had a form of civil union for a number of years now. Fewer and fewer heterosexuals are marrying. Fifty-eight per cent of children in that province are now born outside of marriage. All evidence suggests that children born outside of marriage have poor socio-economic outcomes and require far greater intervention by the state to compensate for parenting shortfalls. The birth rate in Quebec is demographically not sustainable and its population is contracting as in the Scandinavian countries. Absent in immigration, the contraction would be catastrophic: few marriages, fewer children; fewer children, fewer marriages.
Um…it sounds like his big complaint about Quebec is that marriages are not acting as the baby-making machines he wants them to be. And he wants native Quebecers to sustain the population — not those damn immigrants. (“Oh, Mr. McKaaaay! Jacques Parizeau on line one…!”)
(Psst! By the way. This “diminishing population if not for immigrants” problem has existed for a while in Canada already — well before the very first province legalized same sex marriage. So don’t go blaming the hets’ lack of baby-making on the gays, please.)
McKay also ignores the fact that if children growing up with two married parents is what helps society be stable — two married gay parents can fill that bill just fine. What a lovely solution! But no — he wants heterosexual married parents, period. The children of gay parents DO. NOT. COUNT. And he will not allow gay relationships to be legalized so that their home can be as stable as any married heterosexual relationship. He assumes that there is an intrinsic difference in internal function, between a gay married relationship and a heterosexual mariage relationship.
Which there is not. Apart from — do I even need to repeat this? THE GENITALS. (*sigh* How monotonous this obsession is getting.)
But apart from all that, as I said, his main complaint appears to be that if gay people marry, heterosexuals apparently don’t want to, though he has far from proven this to begin with. Let us say, though, that he is right: If gay people marry, fewer heterosexuals want to.
My reply to this? “SO WHAT”?? This is gay people’s fault because…? And they should be denied equal rights therefore, because…?
If heterosexuals’ relationship to the very idea of marriage is so fragile that allowing more citizens to marry will blow their own commitment to marriage right out of the water — THAT IS THE HETEROSEXUALS’ PROBLEM. It is not gay people’s job to babysit them, or to sacrifice their own rights so the heterosexuals’ fragile and uncertain commitment to marriage can retain the illusion of being strong.
If some heterosexual people can look next door at the two men married to each other, and think, “Harumph! I think I won’t get married after all, then” this whiny, self-centered, foot-stomping, pick-up-your-toys-and-go-home attitude is something those heterosexuals need to grow out of, and they should stop getting their noses out of joint because someone else has joined what they seem to view as their elite little club.
I repeat: their immature attitude toward marriage is NOT THE HOMOSEXUALS’ PROBLEM. Gays and lesbians have no problem whatsoever in recognizing the supreme value of marriage. That’s why they want to get married; they know how important it is, or they’d be satisfied with mere “civil unions” or “domestic partnerships.” It is the heterosexuals who refuse to value it, and treat it like a toy that they’ll throw away if they’re forced to share.
There is no reason to deny this citizenship right to homosexuals, because the heterosexuals can’t grow up and view marriage in a mature way. Let the heterosexuals deal with their own problem attitudes, and stop blaming everyone else for it.
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