Monday 10 November 2008

shame on you california


there's been a whole lot of change gonna come this past few days but the fine folk of california have sure been getting the wrong end end of the stick or at least paying way too much attention to the bit that goes

then i go to my brother
and i say brother help me please
but he winds up knocking me
back down on my knees

and fighting to take away their neighbour's rights. imagine that. not fighting for your rights but fighting to take them away. the bleedin' rotters went and voted yes to proposition 8 and now all those lovers who ain't one man and one woman can put the confetti back in the box and stop arguing about who gets to sit next to to who and cancel the fittings for that huge white fairytale creation and get used to lurking back down the dark end of the street.
so well done america. you nearly made me feel good for five whole days.

dusty springfield - don't let me lose this dream



x

12 comments:

FiL said...

Too right! Add shame on Arizona and Florida (State constitutions amended to ban gay marriage)...

Still a long time coming, but a change is gonna come...

The In Crowd said...

Yes, shame.

No one was more surprised to see Prop 8 pass than us Californians.

The consensus seems to be that it was the same increase in voter turn-out by blacks and latinos that helped elect Obama that also put Prop 8 over the top.

Seems they're ready to come out and vote for a black president, but still have a cultural bias regarding homosexuality.

It'll get ground down eventually. It's not that long ago that the subject wasn't even open for discussion.

Likely the next generation will look back and say 'What were they even thinking?'...

With that in mind, my brother, the high school social studies teacher, reports on the climate change in his classroom. He says that as compared with recent years, it is now the students with ANTI-gay opinions who are afraid to speak up in class discussions, who face ridicule by their peers.

A major reversal, to hear him talk about it.

The change will come. Not an 'if', just a 'when'.

dickvandyke said...

Blimey - in California of all places. I could perhaps just about understand it in 1950s Scunthorpe... but such backwards thinking in California! Silly sods.

BLTP said...

It does seem to be 1 step foward 2 steps back.

I woman rang our office by mistake yesterday asking of I had any views on "Gay Divorce" she was perplexed when I said it wasn't my favourite musical.

ally. said...

it's all the sweet loves whose marriages are probably going to be annulled that i really feel for. and that they have to live next door to the folks who took it all away. fucking heartbreaking
x

BLTP said...

Ally: That's why i think the state shouldn't be involved in marriage of any kind. Get rid of the tax benefits for any of it and let people get together if they want to or not and have ceremony. They can come round here and we'll sort them a play list for the do afterwards and then it's two weeks somewhere hot and back to the new toaster.

davyh said...

Or towels. You can never have too many towels.

marmiteboy said...

What I don't get is how a same sex marriage is going to effect the people who want it banned.

It isn't as if soemone is going to make you get married to someone of the same gender is it. Are these people so unsure of their own sexuality that they have to have a law just in case someone dupes them into gay marriage?

It is very stupid and I have no time for such biggots. Their argument will probably be the same old story of it not being allowed by biblical doctorin or some such nonsense.

How have they got the right to meddle in someone elses love life? Shame on anyone who voted for this.

Simon said...

America scares me. I've met some fantastic people there, who think like me, share similar views. But it's easy to forget a lot of America is a whole different country to the UK, a whole different culture - we only just about share a similar language.


Meanwhile the word verification is the superb:

phelers

Anonymous said...

Ally - can I ask a really dumb and obvious question about Prop 8? If a gay Californian couple's marriage is retrospectively annulled where does that leave their legal rights with e.g. pension rights, inheritance etc? I guess there's no UK-style third alternative like civil registration?

Maybe that alternative is something that decent Californians should start campaigning for. Because once you take the actual word 'marriage' out of the equation, the bigots have to come out from behind the bullshit and hypocrisy and Biblical doctrine bit and stand by the naked ugly truth of what they really mean: these people shouldn't have the same rights as us. It took the wind out of the objectors sails a bit in the UK - but their US soulmates might be a bit more shameless.

How do you feel about that marriage / registration distinction? Personally I think that extending civil registration to heteros could be a good idea : separate your private life and the bit that the state needs for its accounting.

Lighter note: recommend any other good versions of this song? Dusty and Aretha are great but they're the only two I know.

ally. said...

hey i'm way too lazy and ill informed to know all the wheres and whys but there's still a thing like civil partnerships but for a little while there gay and straight relationships were treated equally.
me - on the one hand i love all the romaticism of marriage andthe pblic affirmation and all the froth but on the other hand i do like a queer identity and otherness that exists outside of all those conventions. or something. gee i talk some rubbish.

and it's only dust and aretha in my head too. there must be more cos it's a hell of a tune
x

Anonymous said...

Fair point. Whatever you feel about the institution it's only polite to be offered the option.

I was browsing a Charles Earland comp the other day and noticed a version of Dream on the tracklisting. Eleven minute Hammond workout from the look of it! Winner or sinner? I'll let you know if I pick it up...