Are you Registered?

You know me. You know I NEVER speak about politics, or religion with people, since there's so much hate and vitriol involved with those subjects...BUT I am breaking my own rule here because this is VERY dear to my heart.


My sister's wedding got me to thinking:

She's been in her relationship for as long as I have been with TTK. She has two kids with her partner, even...and yet until now she has not been able to be legally married. UNTIL NOW.
11 YEARS she and Anne have been together, have been in love and as one, and they only just now get to legalize that love and that commitment. WOW. Such an incredibly wonderful thing, I just wanted to cry thinking about it. Instead, I went here (California link) and reregistered to VOTE (since we moved and all)...

I encourage ALL of you to do the same--this is a really important election! There are people who don't consider gay people to be normal or acceptable, and so not allowed to be legally married. This time around, they're going for the state constitution, since what had gotten passed before in the year 2000 (proposition 22) was just an addition to the California Civil Code, and was overruled by a 2005 bill that passed the California Legislature, A.B. 849. Schwarzenegger promptly vetoed A.B. 849. (shot down, thanks Arnie.)

People sued against the fairness of 22, and the apellate court overturned 22 as unconstitutional. So, the latest proposition, proposition 8, is directly aimed at changing the constitution. Do you know what a bad thing that is? I can't even begin to explain, with my limited political terminology and rusty skills, how big of a deal it is to actually change the constitution.

Think of the constitution as the foundation of the house, and all the statutes and codes as walls and paint and surface changes--that later voters can adjust according to the times. But the constitution is the FOUNDATION--none of the surface stuff that gets passed can CHANGE that foundation. Amendments alter the foundation. There's such a far-reaching impact of amendments, that any proposition that is going for the foundation of the country/state/organization/government needs to be scrutinized to a much higher degree.

Usually I cast a dubious eye on anything in wikipedia, since I have found so many mistakes, erroneous facts, and outright lies and bias that I check other, more reputable sources before turning to wikipedia...but, in this case, there's actually a well-written, extensively annotated and researched article about this current issue, so if you want to know what's going on beyond the fear tactics and misleading statements in the political ads for this, go check out these pages, and take your research out from there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_22_(2000)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8_(2008)

So that's my foray into politics.
And it is motivated by love, not fear or superiority or distrust or any of the things I see as the basis of prop. 8.

NO ON PROP 8!

I love my sister, even if she is making me wear brown for her wedding. ;-)
(it's CALLED chocolate, but that's just a tasty attempt to confuse me. See, I know she's allergic to chocolate, so it's really just a dark brown. I'd believe it more if she'd said her wedding color was espresso. Heh--Espresso, Cream, Persimmon, and Moss. Except for the moss, it sounds like a new fall beverage at Starbucks. Heh. Just a little humor for those of you who made it to the end of my political rhetoric.)