When It's Easy to Be Ignorant

Lately, I've been thinking about the issue of putting gay marriage/partnerships to a vote. People can't understand why, when you poll folks one month they are for equality for gays, but then the next month it's voted down.

Today I read an article in Newsweek, suggesting maybe it is the portrayal of gay characters in television today influencing people's opinions on the matter: King of Queens. I personally disagree with their argument. They cited how some characters are too stereotypical, how there are more bisexuals instead of lesbians now, and how flaming some contestants have been on Project Runway. Stretch? I would say yes.

I think the votes in California and Massachusetts, to name a few, have precious little to do with television representations of gays. Instead, I think it has to do with the medium GLBTQ rights groups have chosen to push their fight. Sending the issue to the ballot box is a bad idea.

I remember when I was little, going with my mother to the polls, standing behind the curtain with her while she voted. I thought it was awesome, how secretly you were given this time to help choose the destiny of our country. Unfortunately, it is the secrecy that's the problem. When you are in a voting booth, you can be a bigot without anyone knowing.

Putting the rights of any sector of society to a vote is ridiculous and cruel. Of course people voted it down. Can you imagine what would have happened if Jim Crow laws had to be voted down one by one? I'm sure it would have looked somewhat similar to LGBTQ struggles now. Sure, the polling would suggest some tolerance, but giving people the privacy of a voting booth allows them to keep the status quo without being called on it.

State by state voting is not the answer. This has to be a federal fight. Slaves were freed through the Emancipation Proclamation. Jim Crow was ended by the Civil Rights Act & Brown v. Board of Education. Big society altering issues need big government's help to push them forward. Our country does not change its evil ways easily, by any means.

Make people go on the floor of the House and argue why they are not allowing highly trained men and women into our armed forces or kicking out the ones we already have. Make Senators explain why two loving committed adults aren't allowed to bond their lives together legally, why they're not allowed to make a family by adopting unwanted children, or why they can't hold each other when it is time for them to pass on from this life.

Call them on their bullshit. Make them say the hateful awful things in their hearts, and then use it against them in their next election. Make their constituents see who they really are. And testify before their committees. Make them hear your stories. Make them witness the harm their hatered causes.

Stop giving people the voting booth excuse. Piecemeal is not the answer. Go for the piese de resistance.