Friday, April 03, 2009

Iowa overturns ban on Gay Marriage

Oh, boy.....

Now the fight that has upended the rights of Gays and Lesbians to marry in California, (i.e. took away a right previously enjoyed by a minority group, simply because it makes some other people feel "icky" about it), is marching up to my doorstep.

Granted, this just happened today. And will come into effect in 21 days. And there won't be an appeal in the Iowa Supreme court, so it will likely come to pass. But, one more pea remains on the plate: The Ballot Initiative.

This is where the people of Iowa will get the chance to do just what California recently did: take away a right that will be enjoyed by hundreds of couples as they pledge their love for each other and commit to live together as spouses, gaining equal protection under the law. A ballot initiative to change the Constitution of Iowa will be for the sole purpose of stripping away a right from a minority group. Just cuz the Christian God is pissed.

I have no doubt in my mind that the Mormon church will once again work their magic here as they did in California, by pressuring the members here to oppose the Supreme Court's ruling that banning one minority group from marriage is unconstitutional. They will convince the Christian right that they must change the wording of the Constitution to reflect the popular opinion of the people residing in the state, whether it amounts to punishing gays or not isn't the concern. It's upholding the Christian standard above all else. They must prove how much they love Jeesus by showing up at the polls to be counted among his faithful. They must take and preserve the word "marriage" and only allow it under Christian circumstance. (Muslim-Judaism et all).

The Mormon Church is used to doing this because they've been in the biz for over 100 years! Check out some famous "revelations" from Brigham Young regarding the "cursed" Black Race of Cain, and the evils of intermarriage!

Brigham Young Journal of Discourses
February 5, 1852


But let me tell you further. Let my seed mingle with the seed of Cain, that brings the curse upon me, and upon my generations, - - we will reap the same rewards with Cain.

Where the children of God to mingle there seed with the seed of Cain it would not only bring the curse of being deprived of the power of the priesthood upon themselves but it would entail it upon their children after them, and they cannot get rid of it. If a man, in an unguarded moment, should commit such a transgression, if he would walk up and say cut off my head, and kill man woman and child it would do a great deal towards atoning for the sin. Would this be to curse them? No, it would be a blessing to them. It would do them good that they might be saved with their Bren. A man would shudder should they here us take about killing folk, but it is one of the greatest blessings to some to kill them, all though the true principles of it are not understood.


...Suppose we summons them to appear here, and here declare that it is right to mingle our seed, with the black race of Cain, that they shall come in with with us and be partakers with us of all the blessings God has given to us. On that very day, and hour we should do so, the priesthood is taken from this Church and kingdom and God leaves us to our fate. The moment we consent to mingle with the seed of Cain the Church must go to destruction,--we should receive the curse which has been placed upon the seed of Cain, and never more be numbered with the children of Adam who are heirs to the priesthood until that curse be removed.

But say some, is there any thing of this kind in the Constitution, the U.S. has given us? If you will allow me the privilege telling right out, it is none of their damned business what we do or say here. What we do it is for them to sanction, and then for us to say what we like about it.



Even more disturbing is that just a mere 60 or so years ago, it was still ILLEGAL in a couple of states for a black person to marry a white person! All of the same arguments were used back then too, the family unit would be destroyed, God does not approve, blacks should stick with their own kind and be GRATEFUL that they have the privileges they've received so far, what's next PIGS and SHEEP wanting to be married?

I will repost part of what Keith Olbermann of MSNBC's Countdown commented just after Prop 8 passed in California:

If you voted for this Proposition or support those who did or the sentiment they expressed, I have some questions, because, truly, I do not... understand. Why does this matter to you? What is it to you? In a time of impermanence and fly-by-night relationships, these people over here want the same chance at permanence and happiness that is your option. They don't want to deny you yours. They don't want to take anything away from you. They want what you want -- a chance to be a little less alone in the world.

Only now you are saying to them -- no. You can't have it on these terms. Maybe something similar. If they behave. If they don't cause too much trouble. You'll even give them all the same legal rights -- even as you're taking away the legal right, which they already had. A world around them, still anchored in love and marriage, and you are saying, no, you can't marry. What if somebody passed a law that said you couldn't marry?

The parents of the President-Elect of the United States couldn't have married in nearly one third of the states of the country their son grew up to lead. But it's worse than that. If this country had not "re-defined" marriage, some black people still couldn't marry...black people. It is one of the most overlooked and cruelest parts of our sad story of slavery. Marriages were not legally recognized, if the people were slaves. Since slaves were property, they could not legally be husband and wife, or mother and child. Their marriage vows were different: not "Until Death, Do You Part," but "Until Death or Distance, Do You Part." Marriages among slaves were not legally recognized.

You know, just like marriages today in California are not legally recognized, if the people are... gay.



What a sad day, indeed, when we can't just look at a fellow human being and say, hey, here's a human being, equal to me in every way, entitled to all the protections, freedoms, and privileges that I enjoy. Without looking at their skin color, or giving a rat's patooie about what goes on after 10 pm in their own bedroom.

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