What acts of civil disobedience do you plan now that these anti-gay initiatives have been passed? I'm thinking a general gay strike.
Kate wants to hear from you! The next question of the week, straight from Kate, is: What acts of civil disobedience do you plan now that these anti-gay initiatives have been passed? I’m thinking a general gay strike.
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rc
December 1, 2008 @ 10:17 pm
I am very anti-initiative …have I NOT DONE enough yet?…I intend to nap my way through this outbreak of mad vow disease. Having burned my bra, I now burn with embarassment that my people are fighting to join a dying patriarchal institution. Should it come to pass, I will be chained to 7 year commonlaw marriage laws against my will and have to hide my relationship enduring status to keep the state outta my bedroom-oh what legally tangled web we are weaving!
lk
December 2, 2008 @ 3:03 pm
Right on sister! I’m with you 100%. Gay is the new Stepford. It’s both creepy and boring. But in this dumbed down society there are only two mutually exclusive positions: pro marriage or homophobe. People don’t want to think beyond that simple disjunction.
Kathleen
December 6, 2008 @ 10:58 pm
Hi Kate,
I agree with the first two respondents–I think it was a mistake for gays to get dragged into the marriage debate in the first place. Wasn’t your lovely gal pal already saying as much 10 to 15 years ago? Such wisdom! Such prescience!
But now that we HAVE been dragged into this fight, it is so clearly a question of equality, and also of the gross injustice of allowing the ignorant, marauding majority to dictate what rights are and are not allowed to minorities.
My act of protest is going to be to “marry” my partner next year in New York City. I admit, the timing is more about us having scored a great, free space in Manhattan for the ceremony than about civil disobedience, but I hope we will also be making a point about love and commitment not being limited to the heterosexual.
Best to you and yours,
Kathleen
lk
December 8, 2008 @ 3:03 pm
Sorry Kathleen, but “making a point” is a really bad reason for getting married. I hope your relationship survives it.
My two cents:
Lesbians need MORE freedom in relationships, not less. I’m not talking about nonmonogamy. I’m talking about autonomy. People may think that marriage is all about legalities, but the fact is that there IS something existentially different about being married. If this concurs with Christian doctrine on marriage, then so be it.
The two best words in the English language are “Girl” and “Friend”. It doesn’t get any better than Girlfriend. Prop 8 is a slap in the face. So what. Should we fight for a lousy thing just because it is denied to us? And don’t be fooled – marriage won’t be a “choice” for gays. It will soon become an expectation. Do you really want to say “my wife”?
Lucy
a lesbian living in sin
December 10, 2008 @ 1:23 pm
Last I checked, no one was going to require you to get married – plenty of straights skip it, after all. If it’s not your thing, great. As someone who is living in a long-term relationship with a kid in the mix, I could use financial and legal benefits of legalizing our relationship. period.
And then there’s the true horror stories, like the lesbian in my town who was fatally hit by a bus and left in the morgue for a week because they said they could only release her body to “next of kin” – her parents were dead, and her partner didn’t count. Or the two women who were on vacation in Florida when one of them was suddenly incapacitated, sent to a hospital and ultimately died while the hospital denied her partner and children the right to see her because “we don’t recognize gay marriage here.” The inability to legally recognize and protect our relationships has real implications for real people’s lives.
My civil disobedience? Continuing to celebrate my beautiful family every single day.
Gay Hayward
December 13, 2008 @ 10:28 am
Kate–
I, too, have angsted (word?) over these issues myself–I had long-since rejected the traditionally paternal religious meanings of marriage as a litmus test for commitment, BUT equal rights are equal rights–not unequal rights, not separate but equal rights–EQUAL rights, dammit! So I asked my partner to marry me and we did–4 years ago in P-town (where we own property). As much as a political statement as an act of love and commitment. And, since our marriage is not recognized in our state or nationally, many of the reasons to marry are denied us anyway.–go figger!
BUT, to answer your question–I would love a national gay strike, but strikes are very difficult to pull off , piss people off and so have been less than effective of late. (Also, some people would suffer from their employers–no good) However, last week in my home town, anyone who was watching anything besides our reform governor’s outrageous behavior, may have noticed that, for the first time in a couple of decades, a labor action was popular, widely supported by folks (who are suffering or are worried about suffering similarly)and SUCCESSFUL! The Republic Window and Door employees SAT IN at their closed workplace until public and political pressure forced Bank of America (a bailout recipient) to lend money (the purpose of the bailout–again, go figger)to Republic, so that they could pay their employees the benefits, health insurance and 8 weeks of pay (equivalent to the 60 days notice required by law) that they legally owed them. And, under public pressure, Republic took the loan–even though they would have to pay it back after the plant was closed! HALLELUJAH!!!!
So, maybe a SIT-IN–at county and municipal clerks’ offices around the country where marriage licenses are denied gay couples??? Simultaneous? Dressed in wedding garb where possible or maybe logo t-shirts? Deliberately NOT at churches–to show that we are not trying to change religious definitions, but CIVIL definitions, as citizens, who, unlike some ‘Mericans who confuse church and state, respect their separation, as the Constitution so carefully does. Maybe we’d refuse to leave when the offices closed, like the Republic workers? Waddya think?
Happy Holidays, All!
Gay
Chicago (the home of everything lately!)
In fact, why isn’t Chicago on your ’09 tour, Kate??? How can you resist Blegoeivich?