Junk Activism

Wow.  So the weekend’s over and I’m doing my daily rounds, checking out what’s new in the Protest world when I realize one thing rings loud and clear:  Gay is “In” in the news world. Election is over, and while some of the media is following Obama around, Prop 8 protests are alive and well.

I’m not sure if anything has struck such controversy in the past two months since I launched Junk Activism as Proposition 8 in California.  All sorts of interesting tidbits as the gay community strong-arms the religious community into changing silly Mormon superstitions.

Melissa Etheridge is protesting that she has “not a full citizen” and is refusing to pay her taxes over the gay marriage ban.  With the IRS these days, I must say Melissa you must have brass balls.

100 Pro-Gay Protesters sang, “Jesus Loves Me” outside of a Dallas Church holding a sermon called “Why Gay is Not O.K.”

Thousands protested in San Francisco over the weekend, even painting their faces, dressing up in drag, rainbow flags a-flying.

The gay community is pissed.   And I can’t blame…what could be worse than having something you want taken away from you?  Especially something as institutional as marriage.

To me, that is the inherent problem that sums it all up:  Marriage is a very, very old institution.  And it’s a religious one – not a political one.  There is a lot of psychology here, and while the protests seem to be relatively peaceful, there’s a lot of animosity and very, very angry people on both sides.

I see the issue as having two entirely separate and distinct parts and both sides need to give a little.    My goal here is to find a reasonable medium so both sides can duke it out but neither one feels entirely shafted by the legislation involved as they do so.

The first side is see is the “religious” side.  What I’m seeing here is this is a social struggle with a group of people that many Christians have ostrichized as sinful and immoral while the gay side argues that Jesus loves them the same. This battle plays in this space because marriage is a religious institution and until the Christian churches change their minds here, it’s going to be a neverending battle.  The gays say these folks are ignorant and unfair, these Christians say that it’s against their beliefs.

The other side I see is the “political” side.  Namely, legal recognition of partnership.  This side is the litigation that allows same-sex consensual partnerships and recognition as a “couple”.

The government’s job is not to be our moral compass.  We have that all within ourselves – and we all have our own sense of “right” and “wrong”.  This is America, we will never agree on all of these things, but it is not the government’s job to dictate our religious institutions regardless if the majority agrees with them or not.

However, this does not free the government from its obligations of serving its people fairly.  There’s a serious demand for same-sex partnerships, and a lot of people feel hoodwinked by the lack of ability to be registered in a consensual gay partnership.  We should legally allow this.  Why not?  What is the inherent problem with that?  Is it going to really be any different, other than people can actively pursue a lifestyle in peace?  We are all living together here, anyway, why should we let such a simple issue divide politically when its a matter of giving the same legal rights to all people.

So, the semantics are different.  My solution isn’t “marriage”.  But even legally, “marriage” is really only a “partnership” named so because of the religious superstitions behind it.

To be honest, with a something-like 80% divorce rate in America, I’m not really sure why ANY monogomous couple today would want to even associate themselves with being “married”.

Words of the wise: Be modern and progressive, and far more importantly than the gender of those involved, we all should be active in changing the way monogomous relationships are viewed, so we can actually have a working system in America.  We’ll go much farther that way.

I’m open to opinions on this subject, so I encourage you all to comment and let’s have some different perspectives.