Thank You, Judge Walker

THE SPORTS BOTTOM - August 6, 2010

I wasn’t gonna make a blog entry on this subject but the results of this have affected me much more intensely than I ever would have imagined. Enough so that it got me off my arse and marching down Market Street in San Francisco this past Wednesday to celebrate with my city and my “family”.

I’m speaking of the reversal of California Proposition 8, which defined (and changed our state constitution to read thusly) marriage as between a man and a woman. Period. Hmmmm, that rules out most of my friends, including me. Judge Vaughn Walker said the Proposition basically gave no good reason, besides malice and hatred, to deny gay and lesbian couples marriage licenses. Thank you, Judge Walker. Thank you.

Fifty-two percent of California voters passed California Proposition 8 in 2008. Naturally I was a bit upset by this but even a bit happy, because the last time this issue was voted on in California the anti-gay marriage side was at fifty-eight percent, or something like that. So progress was being made.

Of course, who could have guessed my wonderful hubby (in my heart, not legally) would leave us all on that horrible day in January? Of course, had Prop 8 not passed and we had gotten married, I’d be severely in debt and not sure how I’d be able to ever get out of it. So that was an eye-opener. It’s not really about any individual person or couple. It’s about civil rights for everyone, whether you want to use them or not.

Of course the issue is that everyone, EVERYONE, deserves the RIGHT to get married. Who the hell are you to say my marriage has to come up before a general vote, especially when a lot of factors in the election seemed very shady to a lot of people, me included? Sorry Mormons from Utah, but this was a California vote. Thanks. Who the hell are you to force your religion and morals on my legal contracts? Really?

Anyways, the court saw that clearly what the people had voted for was wrong. Simple discrimination. Wrong is wrong. People, American citizens, used to vote for slavery and other horrible institutions. Sometimes the people are wrong. And that’s just the way it is.

Thank you, Judge Walker, for seeing that the vote of the people was not correct. I love my country and I love democracy and freedom, but sometimes the general vote of the people is wrong. My honey is smiling his huge smile at you from heaven. Thank you, Judge Walker.