Below, an email from my friend Clay in California -- a personal and heartfelt call to action regarding California's Proposition 8, which would write discrimination into the state's constitution. If you're in CA, vote NO on Proposition 8, which legislates treatment of gays and lebsians as second-class citizens. If you're not in CA, you can donate to support the cause
here.
Clay's email:
Dear Family and Friends,I’m not a political person, and I feel distinctly odd sending out to the world my personal views and opinions on a ballot measure. In this case, though, I don’t really have a choice. Common wisdom seems to say that Prop 8, which (by simple majority) would amend the state constitution to permanently revoke the rights of gays and lesbians to marry their partners, is going to come down to a few percentage points either way. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and hopefully pass it on.
This is my personal plea to all of you who know me, or know any gay or lesbian person, to do your small part to make sure that Prop 8 doesn’t pass. If you’re in California, please vote no. If you aren’t, please send this along to everyone you know who is, and ask them to do the same. The loss of the right for one person to marry another person they love would be a devastating blow to the spirit of life, equality, and personal freedom on which this country is built, not to mention a very public confirmation that bigotry and intolerance still exist strongly even here in one of the most liberal states in America.
As some of you know, my husband Seth and I have been together six and a half years, and have known each other ten. We are a deeply committed and loving couple who both happen to be men. We dream of living in a state and country that recognizes our union as just as legitimate as any other, and of gaining the same exact rights and responsibilities as any other married couple. California currently affords us that. On May 31st of this year, we threw a wedding celebration for many of our family and friends, and on August 8th we legalized our marriage in front of a clerk and received our official marriage certificate.
I designed our wedding rings, which depict two unbroken waves, one following the other, each supporting the other as it pulses along on its journey in this world, never ending, always speeding towards a new day together. Our wedding was the most emotionally charged experience of my life, as anyone there can attest, and the feelings of catharsis and legitimacy that the ceremony inspired in me were surprising.
What I discovered standing in front of 120 of the people who matter most to me in the world is that it is the most beautiful feeling imaginable to declare your love of another person openly and honestly, to promise to honor and cherish the person that completes you – and to have that commitment legally recognized as just as legitimate and positive and good as any other.
The composer Adam Guettel wrote that “faith is hoping for something and believing what you can’t see.” In this case, it’s a faith in the inherent goodness and empathy of our society. It’s about faith in each other, and in our families and friends, and in millions of people who may not be personally affected one way or the other by Proposition 8.
The truth is, the passage of Prop 8 will affect people like me very directly, forcefully, and permanently. Seth and I are members of a small minority – but we are human beings and citizens of this state and country, and like all others we have built a strong, loving connection to each other. We have found a partner in each other with whom to travel through life, and we dream of children growing up in our home and of living out our years together and taking care of each other until the day we die. We are not harming anyone. We are not inflicting any beliefs on others except a belief in equality and love. We are not a threat. What we are, what our love and marriage are, is a celebration of stability and continuity and joy in society, and we need your help. Prop 8 is destructive and vindictive and filled with hate. Please help defeat it.
It is dramatic to say that my heart aches and my eyes tear up at the thought of having the equality and legitimacy of our love revoked by 50.01% of the population, but that’s the reality. And that’s why I’m essentially begging you to help me defeat this amendment, which would be one of those rare amendments that denies a minority population a right afforded to the majority.
Please pass this message along to whomever you think appropriate.
Please vote No on Prop 8.
And please, if you are able, vote against propositions and laws like Prop 8 wherever they occur. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Clay
