Prop 8 didn’t ban it eliminated!
January 2, 2009 at 7:50 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Prop 8, Same Sex Marriage, The View
I was watching “The View” this morning and prop 8 was mentioned. It drives me crazy that the media says that Prop 8 banned same sex marriage. While the technically may be true it really doesn’t state what Prop 8 really did. In all the other states like Oregon, Michigan and Wisconsin where Same Sex Marriage Amendments have passed it banned same sex marriage.
THAT WAS NOT THE CASE IN CALIFORNIA. IT ELIMINATED RIGHTS. There was already same sex marriage in California and it was ELIMINATED not banned.
My lost election
December 6, 2008 at 5:00 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: california same sex marriage, Prop 8
A month after the passing of Proposition 8 I am finally able to find the time to write something in depth about it.
I hate George W. Bush more than I can say. I was scared of that man and what I knew as he was capable of as far back as 1999.
I lived in fear on Election night 2000. I remember going into by screenwriting class in college with Florida blue. When I got out of class two and a half hours later it was too close to call. I waited and prayed then felt my heart sink when it was called for Bush. Then I lived for the next three weeks watching the recount in Florida.
I shook my head in frustration as America blindly followed him after 9/11.
I was just another aspiring screenwriter in Los Angeles in the fall of 2002 and the spring of 2003 but even I knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I knew the war would drag on and on.
Then I set my whole life aside to help get John Kerry elected in 2004. My hear was broken for at least six months after Bush was re-elected.
I lived and breathed the primaries. I listen to Stephanie Miller in the morning, Randi Rhodes in the afternoon and Rachel Maddow on my way home. Politics is now more important to me than the entertainment industry. Everyday I would break down the poll numbers. Hoping that Obama would hold onto his lead.
I have wanted a democratic president for so long.
Yet as election day neared my attention turned to Prop 8. Despite working until I am tired with exhaustion as a teacher I found time to volunteer for the No on 8 campaign.
On election day I stood with throbbing feet and legs, shaking after the sun went down trying to get voters in West Los Angeles to vote no on 8.
All the while people who don’t follow politics nearly as close as I do, or care as much as I do, were watching state after state go blue for Obama.
I didn’t get to see it happen. As I stood on that street corning being called a faggot for the 10,000 time in my life I made a deal with god. I said “I don’t care if I don’t get to see the moment when Obama becomes president as long as Prop 8 doesn’t pass.”—So much for deals with god.
I wasn’t watching at the moment it happened. I was fighting a loosing battle.
I got home right after 8 pm pacific time. After the election was over. I could only be happy for fifteen minutes become the numbers on prop 8 started to come in. I knew we were gong to loose by 9 pm.
I am still upset today. I am upset Prop 8 was on the ballot on the first place. I am upset with many in the LGBT community who did almost nothing because they thought everything would be okay.
I was robbed. Not only did Prop 8 rob me of my right to get married it robbed me of any happiness I could have had over Obama’s victory. You simply can’t enjoy your glass of water after somebody has peed in it.
What an awesome word
November 16, 2008 at 12:51 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 CommentsTags: Education, faggot, Gay, gay teacher, Prop 8, Same Sex Marriage
I am a teacher in the Watts district of Los Angeles
Yesterda during my confrence period I was out walking the track in a rare chance to get some excercise and sunlight.
As I was walking I heard somebody yell out “Faggot. Mr. Z Faggot. Gay teacher in the Green shirt. Faggot”.
To make a long story short I am sure it was one of my students who has constantly baited me about being gay.
I spoke with my principal about this. I told her I want this kid out of my class.
But after speaking to one co-worker, my mom, by boyfriend and my best friend. I feel that this kid should at least be suspended.
Him yelling “faggot” at me is not different than if he had yelled “nig___” at an African-American teacher.
I am angry. And I am sick of this shit.
I have already lived through being picked on by teenagers for being gay. I am not a little boy anymore. I am a 31 year old gay man and I know what legal rights I have and I will explore those if necessary.
For those idiots who voted yes on Prop 8 because gay people haven’t suffered discrimination. Try living my life.
Imagine
October 29, 2008 at 12:03 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 CommentTags: California gay marriage, Prop 8
Imagine growing up knowing you were different. Being told and teased because you were different. Having everybody from you father to you sister to you cousins to you peers in school all imply that something is wrong with you because you are different.
Imagine the self-hate that would create inside of you.
Imagine people in society telling you that you are choosing to be different, that you are going to hell for being different.
How would that make you feel?
Imagine not having a first kiss until you were twenty-three because you are different.
Imagine being afraid to tell your friends and family that you are different.
Imagine wanting to kill yourself because you are different.
Imagine hiding yourself, hating yourself and cursing yourself because you are different.
This has been my life as a gay man.
Imagine one day you stop hating yourself and begin loving yourself.
Imagine finding love in spite of all of this.
Imagine moving to a state where your relationship will finally be held up as equal.
Now imagine that is all taken away.
Vote No on Prop 8.
No on 8
October 18, 2008 at 5:49 am | Posted in politics | 1 CommentTags: California, Prop 8, Same Sex Marriage
California has long been a state that has paved the way for civil rights. Although California was not the first state to recognize same sex marriage it was the first state to have same sex marriage approved by the state legislature, in both 2005 and 2007 (unfortunately Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed it both times).
In May California continued to shine a line on civil rights when our supreme court overturned the ban on same sex marriage. Same sex couples from all over the states, and the country, began getting married in California. Unfortunately, our celebration was extremely short lived.
In just 16 days Californians will vote on whether to continue to show fairness and equality or to write discrimination into our state constitution and eliminate same sex couples right to marry.
Many people argue that same sex marriage is not in the California State Constitution. Of course it’s not but equality is. Equality means equal. As a good friend of mine says what part of equal do you not understand.
In California and the United States as a whole people have the freedom to practice any religion they want or not religion at all. Yet people still hind behind the bible to justify their homophobia. Never mind that doing that imposes your religious beliefs on other people.
So yes I am a gay man. And I have faced homophobia everyday of my life. Whether it was own father calling me a fag when I was a two year old boy, kids calling my house to harass me when I was in middle school, a hostile neighbor at my boyfriends apartment or uneducated close minded students at my job, It has been there everyday.
Yet I have fought to accept myself for who I am. I do believe in god. I believe that god made me gay and that god wanted me to find love with another man. I believe that he passage in the bible that condemns homosexuality is as irrelevant as the passage that says you should not eat shellfish or that a father can stone his daughter to death if he disobeys her.
Love is love. So if you live in California and you have any compassion or sense of equality in your heart and mind Vote No on Prop 8. I am moving in my boyfriend later this month. Please do not take away our opportunity to get married. And more than us please do no take way the right for couples that have been together for fifty years and want their relationships recognized by the government.
Domestic partnerships are not enough. Separate is not equal.
And please whether you live in California or not contribute to No on 8.
Genius or suicide?
September 1, 2008 at 5:46 am | Posted in politics | 1 CommentTags: 2008 Presidential Race, Alaska, Barack Obama, Joe Liberman, John McCain, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Vice President
As expected the day after Barack Obama’s acceptance speech in Denver John McCain announced his running mate. However, he unexpectedly named Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin his running mate. This was shocking to me. I had expected Mitt Romney, Joe Liberman or if he did pick a woman it thought it would be Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson. I’m sure I was one of many American who thought Sarah who?
The pick of Polin was either a genius move by John McCain or a suicidal move.
I think it is very clear why he picked Palin. It is a clear move for all the Hillary Clinton supporters who still feel robbed by Barack Obama getting the nomination. On Tuesday night Hillary asked if they were in it for her or if they were in it for the issues. Unfortunately, I think there are a lot of women, and gay men, who voted for Hillary Clinton in the primaries in large party just because she’s a woman. And I fear that these same people will vote for John McCain because they want to make history by making Sarah Palin the first female vice president of the United States. I hope this isn’t true but I’ve learned never to overestimate the intelligence of the American public. My first thought when I hear that John McCain had picked a woman was that he had just won the election.
However, Palin is incredibly unqualified to be Vice President. Yes, she’s a governor but she’s the governor of a state who’s population is less than that of Aurora, Colorado. For those of you who don’t know Aurora, Colorado is a eastern suburb of Denver and it is not big at all. So basically Palin runs a moderately sized city. Plus she’s been Governor less than two years. How can Barack Obama’s four years in the U.S. Senate not be enough experience but Palin two years as Governor of Alaska is? Before becoming Governor Palin was in the city council and then major of her small town of about 8,471 people. I am from a town whose population is around that size and believe you me running a town that size does not prepare you to be Vice President to 300.000 people! So again Barack Obama’s eight years in the state legislature in Illinois isn’t enough experience but being major of a town that the size of three big city high school is? When Palin is running for Vice President not President. But the Vice President is just a heartbeat away from the Presidency and when the President is as old as John McCain could be you need somebody who is ready on day one…And I don’t want to hear that John McCain isn’t too old. He may be of sound mind and body today but he has had cancer in the past as a person’s health after the age of seventy can take a drastic turn at a moments notice.
So if the American public is really paying attention to this race Palin’s choice shows how desperate John McCain is and how the Republicans are tied to big oil and how they still only have three cards to play…Guns, God and Gays…But the question remains is the American public really paying attention or are they as easily swayed and distracted as they were in 2000 and 2004? Only time will tell.
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