13 11 / 2008

At Mormon Temple, a Protest Over Prop 8 - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com I think it’s incredibly inspiring and cool that the Prop 8 debacle has made waves nationally. On the other hand, New York, why don’t you get to steppin’ on your own same-sex marriage legislation? I feel like I’ve been hearing a lot of criticism from other blue enclaves like Chicago and New York that “California cares more about farm animals than human love,” or “I guess California isn’t all that liberal after all.” Newsflash people: no, it’s not really. The enormity of our state is mindblowing, and our coastal utopias are offset by massive expanses of tract housing, rural farming communities, mountains and desert which are filled with the “regular working class Americans” we on the coasts love to snub, who go to church in strip malls and spend Saturdays at Wal-Mart and eat like Michael Phelps. California is de facto liberal because it’s so multicultural, and we sometimes pass progressive legislation if we can get more people from the north coast and Hollywood out to vote than the number of bible thumpers the strip mall churches of Orange County can mobilize. And guess what? Turnout in San Francisco was SHAMEFULLY LOW, considering the imperative of the recent election. What the Obama campaign was able to do to mobilize the “regular” Americans in addition to the educated elite was a beautiful thing, and it also resulted in a lot of people getting out to vote who, surprise!, also go to church on the regular. Aside from the fact that it’s widely acknowledged that the No on 8 campaign was too little too late and preached mostly to their own choir, many people underestimated the impact that an increase in black and latino voter turnout would have*; there are still intensely strong taboos in both cultures with regard to homosexuality which are tied up in religion and masculinity and all kinds of shit. This is something to be understood and worked within from a spirit of tolerance and mutual understanding, not dismissed as insignificant and backwards, if you want to be really progressive about it. All I’m saying is, while we’re over here contending with the plurality of our voter base and advancing civil rights, maybe some smaller more homogeneous states (ahem NY and IL, maybe VT, ME, RI what’s up with you guys? or WA, OR? I know you got granola and libertarians up there) want to get started on actually taking this issue to their state supreme court? I don’t see Mayor Bloomberg out there marrying people on the steps of city hall, ya dig? (To preclude criticism from the peanut gallery, I was (a) raised by “the gays” and (b) heartily support matching legislation that restricts heterosexual divorce. If we’re going to talk about sanctity of marriage, let’s remove some of the flagrant hypocrisy shall we?) *In no way is this to be construed as blame or racial fingerpointing. My point here is that the No on 8 campaign could have been at Bethel AME Zion on Sunday mornings talking to people about loving thy neighbor and civil rights instead of hanging out at 18th & Castro and City Hall; know what I’m saying? Probably not, if you don’t live in San Francisco actually. But, if you don’t think increased voter turnout among minority populations could have had even a smidge of impact for a proposition that passed by TWO PERCENT? , read the official statement from the LA Archdiocese on the passage of 8, and then think about how many Latino catholics there are in southern California, let alone the rest of the state. Oh, but haven’t a lot of CA Latinos defected from the Catholic church because of the LA Archdiocese’s record of condemning illegal immigration? Yep. But the newly pentecostal Latino christians tend to be even more conservative. Welcome to California.

At Mormon Temple, a Protest Over Prop 8 - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

I think it’s incredibly inspiring and cool that the Prop 8 debacle has made waves nationally. On the other hand, New York, why don’t you get to steppin’ on your own same-sex marriage legislation?

I feel like I’ve been hearing a lot of criticism from other blue enclaves like Chicago and New York that “California cares more about farm animals than human love,” or “I guess California isn’t all that liberal after all.” Newsflash people: no, it’s not really. The enormity of our state is mindblowing, and our coastal utopias are offset by massive expanses of tract housing, rural farming communities, mountains and desert which are filled with the “regular working class Americans” we on the coasts love to snub, who go to church in strip malls and spend Saturdays at Wal-Mart and eat like Michael Phelps. California is de facto liberal because it’s so multicultural, and we sometimes pass progressive legislation if we can get more people from the north coast and Hollywood out to vote than the number of bible thumpers the strip mall churches of Orange County can mobilize. And guess what? Turnout in San Francisco was SHAMEFULLY LOW, considering the imperative of the recent election. What the Obama campaign was able to do to mobilize the “regular” Americans in addition to the educated elite was a beautiful thing, and it also resulted in a lot of people getting out to vote who, surprise!, also go to church on the regular. Aside from the fact that it’s widely acknowledged that the No on 8 campaign was too little too late and preached mostly to their own choir, many people underestimated the impact that an increase in black and latino voter turnout would have*; there are still intensely strong taboos in both cultures with regard to homosexuality which are tied up in religion and masculinity and all kinds of shit. This is something to be understood and worked within from a spirit of tolerance and mutual understanding, not dismissed as insignificant and backwards, if you want to be really progressive about it.

All I’m saying is, while we’re over here contending with the plurality of our voter base and advancing civil rights, maybe some smaller more homogeneous states (ahem NY and IL, maybe VT, ME, RI what’s up with you guys? or WA, OR? I know you got granola and libertarians up there) want to get started on actually taking this issue to their state supreme court? I don’t see Mayor Bloomberg out there marrying people on the steps of city hall, ya dig?

(To preclude criticism from the peanut gallery, I was (a) raised by “the gays” and (b) heartily support matching legislation that restricts heterosexual divorce. If we’re going to talk about sanctity of marriage, let’s remove some of the flagrant hypocrisy shall we?)

*In no way is this to be construed as blame or racial fingerpointing. My point here is that the No on 8 campaign could have been at Bethel AME Zion on Sunday mornings talking to people about loving thy neighbor and civil rights instead of hanging out at 18th & Castro and City Hall; know what I’m saying? Probably not, if you don’t live in San Francisco actually. But, if you don’t think increased voter turnout among minority populations could have had even a smidge of impact for a proposition that passed by TWO PERCENT? , read the official statement from the LA Archdiocese on the passage of 8, and then think about how many Latino catholics there are in southern California, let alone the rest of the state. Oh, but haven’t a lot of CA Latinos defected from the Catholic church because of the LA Archdiocese’s record of condemning illegal immigration? Yep. But the newly pentecostal Latino christians tend to be even more conservative. Welcome to California.

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