Love is the Law

Long time, no see! I've been having yet another AS flare, plus I had some family visiting. As some of you know, I am a bit of a news junkie, so I have been glued to the TV/internet, watching in disbelief what we call a political system. Most of what I have seen has left me completely gobsmacked (in a bad way), and I will likely comment on some of that later, but for now, I want to concentrate on the positive.

A FEDERAL JUDGE HAS DECLARED PROPOSITION 8 TO BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!! YES!!!

I know, I know, Judge Walker's ruling is far from the last word on the subject, but it's a gigantic step in the right direction, and it's long overdue. The U.S. is pretty much one of the last "developed" nations with legal prohibitions on same-sex marriage. We should've been one of the first to get rid of such antiquated and bigoted laws. The right to marry freely is a basic human right, and we should've set the example for others by extending this right to everyone. But for a country that prides itself on freedom and equal treatment, we are often the last to grant it. Brown v. Board of Education, anyone? Loving v. Virginia?

There is small but vociferous segment of our population that maintains marriage is strictly between one man and one woman. Why? Because the Bible says so. God says so. It's unnatural for people of the same sex to marry. Children raised by a mother and a father are mentally healthier than other kids. Because that's how it should be. Just because it is. Just because.

You know what I say? Bullshit! Homosexuality is common all across the animal kingdom. It's as natural as breathing. Children raised by gays and lesbians are no different from other kids. I learned a long time ago to be wary of people who claim God talks to them and wants them to take certain actions, because those actions always seem to support exactly what the supposed prophet wants. These same people also like to quote the Bible as support for their prejudices. They forget that not everyone is Christian. They forget that our country was founded on the separation of church and state. Some of them even pick and choose and ultimately twist the words of our Founding Fathers to support their assertions that the US is a "Christian nation", just like they pick and choose the parts of the Bible they like and ignore the ones they don't like. The passage most often quoted as Biblical evidence that homosexuality is wrong is from Leviticus, which also states that shellfish are an abomination. I don't see any evangelicals giving up shrimp or picketing seafood restaurants for serving abomination on their blue plate specials, do you? The Old Testament also proclaims that rapists should take their victims as wives and pay the victim's father in silver, but that (thankfully) failed to make it into our legal system. Let's also not forget that the Bible has been used to justify the torture and murder of millions of innocents who were found to be "non-believers" and/or witches (and the passage responsible for that was mistranslated; it really says "thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live", not "witch", as well poisoning was a serious crime in those times)...the oppression and mistreatment of women that continues to this day...slavery, lynching, apartheid, and laws forbidding interracial marriage as late as 1967...child abuse...homophobia.

I want to be very clear that I am not denouncing Christianity or its followers in any way. I think spirituality is an important component of self-actualization, and most of us form a moral compass around it. But you don't have to be Christian to be spiritual. There are other paths to happiness and enlightenment, and they are all equally valid. What I am denouncing is a small group of people who claim to be following Christ. I don't think you can follow Christ with hatred in your heart, and when someone takes the time to do what it took to pass Proposition 8, there is hatred in their heart. Think about the money spent on the advertising...the time it took to make signs and protest...the effort of getting up and going to the polling places and casting a vote against fellow humans. That's hatred, and I don't understand where it comes from. Christianity says that all you have to do to be saved is let Jesus into your heart and acknowledge him as your Savior. So why take the time to deny an entire group their basic human rights in the name of your god? Do you honestly think when you get to Heaven that your god is going to say "I see you didn't take the time to stop any gay people from being happy. Sorry, you're going downstairs."? No? Then why? How is same-sex marriage hurting you? It's not as if there are only so many civil rights to go around; giving gays and lesbians the right to marry isn't going to somehow take away our right to marry. It doesn't somehow negate the institution of marriage. If anything, marriage in its most traditional form where the woman is the property of her man and must "submit" to him is profane.

Gays and lesbians only want what we all want: happiness. Love. Contentment. Who are you to deny that? We all deserve love, every single one of us. Love tames the wildest beast, and makes the timid wild. It opens our hearts and our eyes. It is both tender and ferocious, and even when it makes no sense whatsoever, it brings a wonderful clarity. I look at my beloved and I see the best version of myself reflected back from his eyes. I want everybody to have that! We are constantly asking why we're here, what we're supposed to be doing, and what we're supposed to learn. I'll tell you: love. Love is the lesson. We are here to learn love. The people who put together Proposition 8 are failing the lesson. The people who march around carrying signs with horrific, homophobic hate speech are failing the lesson. The people appealing Judge Walker's decision are failing the lesson. I suspect these people have never really been loved; they may not know how to really love themselves. I know what you're thinking-that I make snide comments, I get angry, and I am often grumpy. You would be right. But underneath it all, I do love. I love my husband and children, my family, my friends, my neighbors (except for the leafblower guy *wink wink*), all of humanity, even you. And when Prop 8 is a distant memory, and our gay brothers and lesbian sisters have the same civil rights we do, love will have triumphed. For the sake of my loved ones who are LGBT, for the sake of our Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees us all as Americans, for all of us...I hope that day is finally here. Love and justice for all of us. It's the only way.