Baaaaaybee yesterday was ‘reach out kiss the kids’ day in West Hollywood! It was enough ‘happy energy’ in West Hollywood you would have thought they were shooting a Care Bears musical, seriously. If you don’t know, yesterday a U.S. district judge in San Francisco overturned California’s controversial Prop 8, rejecting the same-sex marriage ban and sent the gays into a frenzy nationwide from Mexico to New York! Just FYI, Prop 8 or California Marriage Protection Act, was a voter-approved ballot measure in the November 2008 elections.
It reversed the prior California Supreme Court ruling that gay couples had a constitutional right to marry. In a nutshell with Prop 8 now being passed this creates a legal fight that could very well start a chain reaction of challenges on both sides of the debate until the Supreme Court ultimately has its say.
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Though yesterday was a win for the gay community, the fat lady is no where near ready to sing. There are still 30 other states who have the same-sex marriage bans with only five states — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Iowa and the District of Columbia who have legalized same-sex marriage.
Even though celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres are tweeting ‘Equality Won!’ many are tweeting ‘its unconstitutional and makes a mockery of civil unions.’ Gay marriage is a taboo subject many don’t want to discuss, almost like not wanting to admit you still like R. Kelly’s music after his sex tape scandal. Interesting enough our President doesn’t necessarily support gay marriage personally, but he believes Prop. 8 is ‘divisive and discriminatory.’
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So what’s the fuss? I personally feel we are asking the wrong questions! I’m pretty sure somewhere in the family tree, one of those men who wrote the constitution and made these amendments has a gay relative. To even get deeper, of the 7-million Californians who voted to limit marriage to a man and a woman – I’d like to know how many of them have had their hair done by the queen in the beauty shop or had ‘Uncle Sugar Foot’ babysit on a saturday for a single parent who wanted to go out and party?
These same gays that some Americans want to deny the right to marry who they love could very easily be your best friend, sibling or community leader. I understand many people say its unmoral and against God’s way and I agree, I wouldn’t want to see Rosie O’Donell swopping spit with her wife at the park – but who would?
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A California field poll of registered voters last month found 51% support legalizing gay marriage with 42% opposed but nationwide public views are more narrowly divided. According to the most recent ABC News poll 47% percent of Americans polled favor gay marriage while 50 % are opposed.
The case will now be appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court and possibly all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. We have to keep supporting it as it progresses. Celebrities such as Kimora Lee Simmons, Russell Simmons, Isiah Washington, Claudia Jordan, Dawn Richard of Dirty Money and countless others participated in the NOH8 Campaign which is a
