| If you tune in to the CalChannel right now, you'll see an Assembly hearing regarding HR 5, Asm. Ammiano's Resolution opposing Prop 8. After twenty minutes of some heartbreaking stories from LGBT families, it was hard to see it move on to the opponents. There were stories of children questioning whether their families were real because their wasn't a marriage involved. There were stories of LGBT children being brutalized.
Apparently the only opponents to marriage equality are from Antioch and Petaluma, as it seems the first half of marriage equality opponents came from those two Bay Area cities. The arguments were the typical, don't disenfranchise us, there are more of us than there are of you, typical ridiculousness. One of the richest arguments, just littered with irony:
We cannot allow the minority to rule against the people. I'm sorry if it doesn't go in your favor...I ask that you support the people.
I actually think this speaker, one Florence Cusick, meant to give this speech to the Republican Senate caucus regarding the budget. It's amazing the hypocrisy, it just burns. She spoke of the persecution of her Irish ancestors, and the persecution of her minority.
It really is amazing how one minority seeks to push down another once they have moved up the ladder. The repeated invoking of allowing a majority to oppress a minority. They gloat of prevailing, cry of disenfranchisement. And of course, the slippery slope argument leads to pedohilia, thanks to a pastor named Chauncy Gillings of Salinas. Why the Yes on 8 folks can't fathom the distinction, one of consent.
But in the end, democracy can only go so far. Democracy can only go so far as the tyranny of the majority does not
Asm. Ted Lieu (D-LA County) made quite a powerful speech.
Ten years ago I did not support marriage equality. I am a proud co-author of HR5, and proud to support Sen. Leno's marriage equality bills. To me the issue is very simple, it's about love. You never see the words love in the constituion. And that's precisely the point. Government ought not to be regulating the most sacred private parts of loving indivisuals. I love my wife, but there is no reason that love takes any precedence over Asm. Ammiano's love, or Sen. Perez's love of his life. There is nothing unique about my love that qualifies my wife and I to get a piece of paper that says marriage, that Tom Ammiano can't get for the love of his life.
No matter where you believe love flows form Jesus CHrist, as I do, or from Allah or from the human condition, you believe that love is the most sacred part of life. ... For government to choose winners and losers as to which love qualifies for what, is the ultimate offensive notion of what we are ll about. The issue isn't about your beliefs, it is about whether you think the government should be regulating in this most sacred area.
My view is that government should not pick winners and losers. We need to treat everybody equally. Government should stay the hell out of regulating this most sacred institution.
The video should be up on the CalChannel's recent activity page soon. |
