Category Archives: prop 8

Rene and I saw “The Laramie Project” put on by Theater Out at The Hunger Artists Theater. For those of you unfamiliar with the play it was created in the wake of the Matthew Shepard Tragedy and was written by the Tectonic Project who conducted over 200 interviews in the city of Laramie, Wyoming of people involved in every aspect of the community and how they were affected by the events and all of the attention caused by it. It was a remarkable show and if you have the chance to see it you should.

One of the themes in the show is hate. Hate is a big deal. It’s been a big deal for a long time. It enhanced the violence in the Shepard crime, set back civil rights, led to the passing of California’s Proposition 8, and has lead to attempted genocide on almost every continent from Germany during World War II to the United States as we annexed the west to modern day Africa. Hate is easy, dirty and ugly. Because it is so easy often the first thing that people do to rally against hate is to hate the haters. In the end neither side is willing to listen and rather than any kind of dialogue or compromise we are just left with people yelling at each other.

I started this blog days ago, but originally left it unfinished because I wanted to think through what I was going to say and make sure what I wrote comes out how I intend it. Without realizing it this delay also meant that I was able to continue this blog after the decision was reached by the Supreme Court on Prop 8. The court was tasked to deem if the proposition was constitutional or not. They decided, in a 6 to 1 vote, that it was. They also decided that the marriages that were performed while gay marriage was legal shall remain legal and recognized.

Trying to keep in line with practicing what I preach I’m not going to rile against the people whom I consider ignorant and superstitious, but I do hope that people will truly consider just what it means to deny anyone a right due to random differences. It is unthinkable to most Americans now that women weren’t allowed to vote, that blacks had to sit in the back of buses and that Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps. I hope with time that this becomes a sin of the past as opposed to a sin of the present and that the coming generations will see past the ravings of the ignorant and make decisions for themselves based on experience rather than dogma.

I’m getting myself upset as I type this so I’m going to stop, but I want all of you who feel that discrimination is wrong to help get the word out – discrimination is not a thing of the past. It is alarmingly present and if we truly want to see it come to an end then it is up to us, as individuals, to make that change.