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Sunday, May 18. 2008
So Goes the Nation
California’s State Supreme Court just made history. It, in effect, legalized same sex marriage in the Golden State! What it did, in its voluminous opinion (120 pages) was strike down the law banning same sex marriage. In essence, their opinion comes in these 12 words: “[sexual orientation] does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.”The opinion, written by Chief Justice Ronald George, also said, “… responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation.”
“We therefore conclude that in view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples.”
Interestingly enough, six of the seven justices are Republican appointees and the court has been, traditionally, conservative. Former governor, Republican Pete Wilson, appointed the man who wrote the opinion, Chief Justice George.
Of course, there are those who oppose the court’s decision. They’re coming from all over the United States to support — no, bash on California voters — a ballot initiative to insert 14 words into the California Constitution: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California.”
For them, this is just another case of “judicial activism.”
Whenever a court makes a decision the Republicans and radical Christian fundamentalists disagree with, it’s “judicial activism.” That mantra is getting a little tiring.
In essence, if a court extends civil rights to a group that was at one time denied those rights, the radical Christian fundamentalists who control the Republican Party scream “judicial activism” and the politicians who suck the tit of their campaign monkey make blustery speeches about the disintegration of the American family, and the country as a whole, as if living up to the promise of the rights and liberties guaranteed by our Bill of Rights has some how become a detriment to society.
Matthew Staver is from Florida, and he’s the director of Liberty Council, a Florida group dedicated to denying liberty to those that don’t fit the council’s narrow definition of who in this country deserves liberty. He’s one of the outsiders coming to California to lead the effort to overturn the court’s decision.
Along with the hypocritically named Liberty Council, there are the Concerned Women for America and the Family Research Council, headed by Tony Perkins, of course. They have to protect marriage. In fact, a national coalition that encompasses all of these anti-freedom groups has been formed, called Protect Marriage.
Protect marriage from what? People who wish to form a family with all the legal benefits — and legal consequences — of a state issued license?
And what is it about monogamy that people seem to think is so natural? Science has proven that the 90% of bird species that are “monogamous” often have chicks that have been fathered by other males of the same species, suggesting that monogamy is basically for child-rearing purposes and not necessarily for “mating.”
As science finds evidence of other monogamous animals that engage in breeding with animals outside the family unit, the suggestion is that humans are also instinctively drawn to having multiple sexual partners in order to perpetuate the species. Hey! I’m down with that!
Their legislative focus is a proposed amendment called the California Marriage Protection Act, which will be in the ballot initiative come November. So, all of these hooligans based either in the Bible Belt or Washington, D.C. think they have the right to tell Californians how to live? Well, “God” told them to interfere with my life and those of my fellow Californians.The claim from the outside agitators is that California ministers have been burning up the phone lines asking these outside agitators to come to California and right this left-listing ship. The limp-wristed, lisping ship. And the California ministers are just too ineffective as leaders to form and start their own grassroots movement to oppose same-sex marriage. I’m a bull-shitter, a darn good and proud purveyor of half-truths, fantastic tales and idiotic manipulations to achieve usually dubious purposes. In other words, it takes one to know one. These guys are lying through their teeth.
What’s really at stake here is the effect this decision will have on the rest of the nation. As California goes, so goes America and if the Golden State legalizes same-sex marriage it won’t be long before other states fall in line, although Massachusetts has already led the way with its very liberal view on marriage.
The California decision goes much farther though. Same-sex couples can now get legal, state-issued licenses to wed. Which means the other 49 states will have to recognize the legal status of the people married in California, regardless of their sexual orientation. That really scares the bejesus out of the people who claim Jesus as their savior. Whenever the courts — or science — chips away at the mythology of the Bible, the Bible thumpers become reactionary.The power of their authority rests with the Bible and when parts of it are disproved or rendered obsolete, it chips away at their power over their flocks. Which is why it is so important to them to have the mythology of Genesis taught as science in schools. It gives legitimacy to them and therefore their power.
So, when the Supreme Court of California says the religious-based ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional the radical Christian fundamentalists see their power over their followers being diminished. They won’t go away quietly. Hell, they’re screaming “Judicial Activism! Judicial Activism!” They’ve been amassing money from their mostly poor and under-educated followers — and lately the better educated and financially situated followers as well — in an effort to recreate the United States into a theocracy that benefits them — just like their Islamic counterparts in Iran and, eventually, Iraq.
As much as I despise the California obsession with ballot initiatives, working against the California Marriage Protection Act will be a pleasure.
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And what do you know: Big Brown won the Preakness.
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