Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Disappointed. Also glad to be Canadian.
I am disappointed Kerry didn’t win.
What I’m really disturbed about, however, is some of the margins on ballot questions banning gay marriage in several states. Most of them *also* explicitly or implicitly ban civil unions, too, which is even more chilling. Almost all also explicitly state that marriages sanctioned in another jurisdiction would not be recognized - sounds apartheid-ish to me.
In the following list, the first number is the percentage of voters voting to ban gay marriage. CNN has all the numbers here.
- Arkansas: 75% / 25% - implicitly includes civil unions in the ban
- Georgia: 77%/ 23 % - appears to ignore the issue of civil unions
- Kentucky: 75/25 - explicitly includes civil unions in the ban
- Michigan: 59/41 - explicitly includes civil unions in the ban
- Mississippi: 86/14 - appears to ignore the issue of civil unions
- Montana: 66/34 - includes civil unions in the ban
- North Dakota: 73/27 - explicitly includes civil unions in the ban
- Ohio: 62/38 - explicitly includes civil unions in the ban
- Oklahoma: 76/24 - explicitly includes civil unions in the ban
- Oregon: 57/43 - ignores civil unions in ban; leaves door open to recognize same-sex unions from other jurisdictions
- Utah: 66/34 - explicitly includes civil unions in the ban
Couple this with the likelihood of the Supreme Court becoming much more conservative over the next four years, and the gay and lesbian community in the US has a real uphill fight.
Simply put, the results on gay marriage suck. I’ve known and been good friends with many gays and lesbians over the years, and it is incredibly absurd to me that their relationships will receive absolutely NO legal protection in much of the US. Your gay partner in the hospital? Sorry, you don’t get family visitation or decision-making rights. That’s f&*cked.
I have a real hard time understanding why some non-gay people get so exercised about the sexuality of other people. I really don’t get it. If you don’t like it or it makes you uncomfortable, fine - avert your eyes. But what business is it of mine what you do in your bedroom or who you choose as a companion? Answer: None.
