I also believe that the historic civil union law that I proudly signed in 2005 is equitable and just. We were the first state to enact such a law through legislative action and not a court mandate.

That’s great.  That’s a lot like saying “We gave them separate-but-equal status before being told by the courts that discrimination is illegal.  They should be happy with that.”

It wouldn’t surprise me if someone actually used a quote similar to that back then.  It boggles the mind that people think that a little discrimination is okay, as long as you don’t actually hate them.

In the UK we have civil unions, but everyone calls it marriage.  I asked the LGBT rep at work was there any difference.  Her answer was ‘Basically no- including any divorce’. No one gets hung up on the M word. 

The first gay marriage in the UK was also the first gay divorce. (I think almost exactly 3 years later).  Make your own jokes up about splitting the CDs.

By god, if they’re going to legalize gay marriages instead of just letting them have civil unions, then pretty damn soon you can be sure they’re going to legalize gay divorces instead of just letting them have civil dis-unions.  And then where will the sanctity of my two divorces go?  To hell, that’s where!  Folks, we’ve lost the battle to preserve the sanctity of marriage.  But we can still preserve the sanctity of divorce. Act now! Don’t let the gays get the right to divorce! Keep divorce sacred!

Is heterosexuality contagious? Then, if not, just maybe homosexuality is not contagious? WTF Oh, wait, I was just trying to reason with the fundies. How dumb of me. Sorry! 

Don’t you Godless Liberals know ANYTHING.  If perverts are allowed to pretend to be married then schools will be forced to teach our children that being gay is natural, and they should be gay.  That is what the pervert mafia want- all our children to be gay so they don’t have kids, and allow China to take over the west.

Going for a second dip…

  I was perusing for new posts on my favorite blogs, and I noticed that adsense (or whatever you use)seems to have picked up on this post…the last three times I’ve checked in, a nice long ad starts scrolling down all about how important it is to vote yes on Prop 8.  Hilarious.  I hope they are wasting good money on advertising for Californian religious bigotry here, on the blog of a Michigan atheist.  Maybe it will play on Daily Kos, too! 

  I checked out the website…zero facts, a goodly bit of scare tactics, lots of chances to donate or volunteer…pretty standard religious-right bullshit.  The only argument I could actually find was some crap about how “marriage and family life” is taught, by state law, to children starting in kindergarten.  I sure don’t remember this, but it’s been almost three decades…maybe there is a section on family life now, although I’m sure it of all classes could be opted out of if it even exists.  The whole argument was that unless prop 8 passes, schools would be required by law to teach specifically that homosexual marriage is the same as heterosexual marriage.  So obviously, WE HAVE TO PROTECT THE CHILDREN!!!! 
  I doubt very much that the truth is so dramatic, but even if it is, so the fuck what?  The churches can still lie about science, morality, equality, reality, all day long, tax free.  But we can’t have the government, under which we are all equal, teaching about equality! 
  Sad to say, whatever the outcome of the election, I think it is very likely that Prop 8 will pass, and homophobia and christian supremacy
will be enshrined in our state constitution. 
  I apologize in advance to anyone who was expecting better of us…there is a strong progressive streak in California, but it gets awfully sluggish under the weight of the self-righteous ignorance we carry.

Neil:

We actually have christian fundies who have gotten over their racism enough to seek the help of conservative Sikhs, Hindus, and even Muslims to keep gays from being treated equally.  Working with “false religions” just to promote bigoted political policies…just how hypocritical and dishonest can “good christians” be?  I guess we’re gonna start finding out.

Isn’t it wonderful to see how an “All-Loving” God can just love homosexual to death? I sure want that kind of god on MY side! 

I’m curious how much the anti-gay vote will fuck things up here in California.  Our courts did the right thing, and there are many republicans here who don’t give a shit about “preserving marriage” or whatever other horseshit euphemism for bigotry is being used by the jesus freaks.  However, there are no republican politicians that will acknowledge this simple fact, and all of them will, to one degree or another, use this bigotry to rally the vote when they can. 
  It’s sad, and maddening.  No republican politician will take a stand for gays in any way, because of the religious vote.  Yet non-religious, unprejudiced republicans who still believe republican lies about “smaller government” and “lower taxes” will still vote for bigoted candidates out of perceived self-interest and party unity.  The religious voters hate voting for non-prejudiced republican candidates, but will do so because it just HAS to be better than voting for a liberal who actually admits to thinking that gays are human beings.  The end result is a complete lack of principles among conservative voters and politicians.  Some pretend to hate gays to get the vote, some vote against their conscience just to stick it to the gays, some vote against the gays by voting for anti-gay politicians out of greed or loyalty, and we all lose.  If you are willing to sacrifice your honesty, your last shred of decency, and every other principle except that of party loyalty, you can have a great career in republican politics here.
  Who knows, maybe our Prop 8 is a good thing in the end…hopefully it will fail.  It may bring more fundies to the polls, which is always bad for the freedom of non-fundies.  But it also takes one issue and brings it out to the people, away from the candidates.  Those fundies who hate gays, but also hate recession and don’t trust McCain can vote against gay marriage without necessarily voting republican down the line.  I know that most of the fundies will vote republican anyway, but there are many religious folks here that are sick of republicans right now, but still feel a bit uh…queer about treating gays equally. 
  Sorry to go on so long, but dragging this supposedly liberal state into the 21st century is getting to be one hell of a long job…
One other thing that could work for good, bad, or both…some of the anti-gay fundies here are actually trying to network with other religious conservatives to thwart the dreaded gay agenda.  We actually have christian fundies who have gotten over their racism enough to seek the help of conservative Sikhs, Hindus, and even Muslims to keep gays from being treated equally.  Working with “false religions” just to promote bigoted political policies…just how hypocritical and dishonest can “good christians” be?  I guess we’re gonna start finding out.   
  To any other Californians reading this…No on 8.  If we can’t get our own state to treat all citizens equally, what can we expect from the rest of the country?  We’ve let the loudmouthed hypocrite christofascists fuck things up for too long now…it’s time for the Left Coast to start leading this country out of the dark ages and back to the Enlightenment.

Another insult to traditional familys by the lib’ral anti-christian court system trying to push their homersexual agenda. Thing’s were shur better in the ol’ days when folks din’t have it so easy.

My fader told me how he had to walk five miles to and from skool, sweatin’ in the hot sun, uphill both ways. They din’t get upto no such hijinx as gay marrage back in the ol’ days, no sir they din’t.

might be poor timing, though. look what happened four years ago in the election. The Republicans managed to get gay marriage ban laws on a bunch of ballots in swing states and it brought out the fundies in droves. This kind of thing might cause the same sort of thing to happen. Hopefully not, since it’s an important ruling and finally grants a portion of the population the rights the rest of enjoy and that they deserve.