A Tiny Bit of Reflected Glory
May. 10th, 2013 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsIt seems that every week, if not every day, there's another state legalizing gay marriage. At this rate of change, the nation will end up making the Supreme Court's decision moot. I hope so.
But the fact that Proposition 8 is still grinding through the highest court in the land is a reminder that up until the last nation election, THE biggest clobber used against equal rights was that "gay marriage always fails a citizens' election." And it was true. Every time the rights of the minority were put up to vote, the majority slapped it down.
Until Maryland and Maine.
I don't know the background in Maine. Maryland had proposed gay marriage, then one of the bill's backers got cold feet at the backlash and backed off her own bill. (She was from my county - I was burning up her phone line, then voted her ass out). Then the whole state legislature waffled around, then they washed their hands of the deal by saying "Yes, but only if it passes a referendum vote" - read: "Only if a majority of the citizens vote it in."
And no law for gay marriage ever survived a citizen vote.
Until Maryland and Maine.
And now I watch the history marching onwards and I get a little tiny buzz from knowing that by voting "Oh, HELL YES!" to Question 6, I helped break the back of the clobber lobby and pave the way.
But the fact that Proposition 8 is still grinding through the highest court in the land is a reminder that up until the last nation election, THE biggest clobber used against equal rights was that "gay marriage always fails a citizens' election." And it was true. Every time the rights of the minority were put up to vote, the majority slapped it down.
Until Maryland and Maine.
I don't know the background in Maine. Maryland had proposed gay marriage, then one of the bill's backers got cold feet at the backlash and backed off her own bill. (She was from my county - I was burning up her phone line, then voted her ass out). Then the whole state legislature waffled around, then they washed their hands of the deal by saying "Yes, but only if it passes a referendum vote" - read: "Only if a majority of the citizens vote it in."
And no law for gay marriage ever survived a citizen vote.
Until Maryland and Maine.
And now I watch the history marching onwards and I get a little tiny buzz from knowing that by voting "Oh, HELL YES!" to Question 6, I helped break the back of the clobber lobby and pave the way.
