Tuesday, October 14, 2008
I'm agitated only partly because I'm taking a short break from practicing the hardest, fastest piece of music that I've ever had to cram into my head at the last minute.
The main reason is the bad news on the Prop. 8 front. According to today's Oakland Tribune, the Mormon church has been calling on people and instructing them to donate huge amounts of their income to the "yes on 8" fund. On top of that, my mom drove past the Mormon temple today (she lives right below it) and saw a group of cute, clean cut, ever so trustworthy looking girls holding "yes on 8" signs. LDS folks have raised huge amounts of money (something like $20 million) for that cause.
I simply cannot wrap my head around this. It's making me so angry that I now have a giant pit in my stomach.
I know that some of my Mormon relatives read this blog, and to you I say this:
1. It's not about you. It's not about your traditional lifestyle. Your life will not change if same sex civil marriages continue. You are under no threat whatsoever.
2. It is about rights. It's about the rights of others and their protection under the law.
3. It's not about God. Or religion at all. Or the Church. It's about rights. It's about the rights of others and their protection under the law.
To you, I also say:
Please, please, please have the courage and strength to stand up and say "NO."
Have the strength to determine for yourself what is right and wrong.
Have the courage to confidently live your life according to how you see fit, and let all others do the same.
Realize that there is no way in which same sex civil marriage can be denied on a purely civic argument. The opposition to it (by which I mean the support of proposition 8) is basing all of the arguments on religion.
Have the guts to actually live the separation of church and state that the constitution ensures.
7 comments:
Right on, Kathryn! I like your blog and fully support your views. Let's hope the election turns out the way we want it to...we need more people like you in the world!
Hey kelly!
Thanks for reading? How are things?
I just sang a concert this weekend that featured some contemporary Scandinavian chamber choir music....made me think of Gervais and all that Swedish stuff!
Things are great - I've got a gorgeous son and I am applying for nursing schools. I actually went to Merritt and dropped out because it was an awful program - I am now applying for Samuel Merritt (a private medical college in Oakland). I will become an avid reader of your blog from now on. I love blogs. It's really cathartic to write, isn't it? You write very well.
Your reason #1 is the biggest thing I try to tell people about gay marriage. I'm straight and married. How does allowing more people to participate in marriage degrade *my* relationship? It makes no sense.
I'm not in California. I live in Kentucky, which I'm sure will be one of the last places we see gay marriage legalized, but I've been following the Prop 8 stories. I hope Californians do the right thing.
Your reason #1 is the biggest thing I try to tell people about gay marriage. I'm straight and married. How does allowing more people to participate in marriage degrade *my* relationship? It makes no sense.
I'm not in California. I live in Kentucky, which I'm sure will be one of the last places we see gay marriage legalized, but I've been following the Prop 8 stories. I hope Californians do the right thing.
Since I'm one of those Mormon relatives, I should say something, no? :)
I decided many months ago to vote NO despite what my church asked me to do. Many of my friends from my Berkeley congregation are also voting No, so please know that not all Mormons are on board with this. I know there are lots of people that attend a Mormon congregation in Oakland (long-time friends of my parents) that are against it also.
Yes, Berzerk, I'm very glad you chimed in!
It's hard for me to understand why the hierarchy in Utah is so invested in this, and I'm glad that you and the fair-minded folks you know are deciding for yourselves.
It's easy to read the reports that Bishops are being told to instruct people to vote yes, and to assume that they will. Because their bishop said so, or because the president of the church said to. I'm very happy to hear that it's not that simple!!
Thanks Berzerk. You rock.
Just out of my pure curiosity:
Isn't D a bishop? Has he been told to spread the "vote yes" word, and if so, how does he feel about that?
p.s. at St. John's they've got a banner that says "Christians against prop. 8" or something. It's pretty cool.
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