"It's no longer about tolerance. Acceptance of gay marriage is now mandatory." So stated one Prop 8 advertisement, referring to the court's overruling of Prop. 22 in 2004.
It seems twisted to me that we must truncate the rights of a minority to preserve intolerance. The statement seems to want to profess some amount of tolerance, but what it's really saying is "We will continue to be tolerant of things we don't like for as long as they are not allowed." Tolerating shit is not the same as tolerance.
It's strange how allowing gay marriage has become some kind of mandate on the straight conservative demographic. By extending rights to one group, we must force the opposing group to grit their teeth and bear it. Is this a circumvention of the latter group's right? Right to what? To not have gays marry?
In 1776 only white men with property were allowed to vote. Nearly 100 years later the 14th amendment acknowledged African Americans as citizens of the U.S., and a few years later, the 15th amendment granted them the right to vote. Almost 100 years after that, MLK Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, still fighting for rights that he Constitutionally already had. I'm sure that the racists who made up the lynch mobs believed that allowing blacks to vote was a serious transgression against the "true Americans," the majority. Consider this:
"It's no longer about tolerance. Acceptance of African-American voting rights is now mandatory."
What about:
"It's no longer about tolerance. Acceptance of womens' sufferage is now mandatory."
If California, the liberal hub of this hateful country, can approve yet another means of discrimination, then I will shed my own illusions about the purpose of this country, and start pushing for measures of my own.
Next, we need to ban fat marriage. Fat people should not marry other fat people, as it's just asking for trouble, genetically. Plus, it's really disturbing for me to see fat couples holding hands, right out in public for God and children to see. And sometimes they kiss. Fat couples, listen, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to go ahead and be fat and married in another state. And if you somehow manage to slip your plus-sized marriage in under the wire before I get this measure passed, you're still fucked because it won't count anymore when I'm through. That's right, you didn't call no take-backs on that shit.
