Otherization

This post was written in a moment of anger and frustration. It contains strong language as a result. You've been warned - ADT

Life must be easy for those who get to decide which morals and laws apply to them and which apply to others. In making the case for all Americans to be able to enter a legal contract with one another (however you define that- marriage or civil unions or zargax) the primary issue in my opinion is that laws cannot be applied as people choose. Laws apply to everyone.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution says

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

That means that you, me, Ralph Reed and everyone who is a resident (and not citizen, as François Luong points out to me) of the United States has laws apply to them equally. If you can't murder someone else, neither can I. I can't rob from someone, neither can Ralph Reed, even if he's friends with Jack Abramoff.

Marriage is a big word. It means that thousands of years ago, someone decided they would like to be in a business relationship with someone else and thus had their children have sex and make more children so that your stuff and their stuff would become this kid's stuff and then he or she (ok, he) could then pass it down to some other person who could then continue to be wealthy and not have to live like everyone else, covered in shit and dying of disease.

Societies made rules about who could marry. In India, it's the caste system. If you're thinking there's no caste system elsewhere, you're very wrong. People made rules so that their ideologies would be followed by people in generations after so they could guarantee, after their own deaths when they would have no idea, that their shit went to people who represented them in some way.

I am not denying that this is wrapped into the history of civilization. Quite simply, we've never figured out how to handle dying so basically, we have to make sure that the shit we accumulate goes to a good home. Forever. I get that: I have several guitars. I'll be damned if anyone who goes to the University of Florida ends up with them.

Unfortunately, when I die, I won't know. Actually, come to think of it, I probably won't care. I'll be dead. My brain cells, which care at the moment, will either rot or be turn into ash and scattered on the mound of Turner Field. Actually, I don't care if they don't end up where I want them: I'll still be dead.

Anyways, marriage is a big word, but what it means has changed over time. The one constant, it seems, is that you're supposed to have kids and give your shit to them to give to their kids. That's apparently the only thing anyone cares about.

And that still applies, but now life has changed. You can actually CHOOSE, through the use of a will, who gets your shit. That's right: if my future child goes to Florida (and I never speak to them again), I can give all my shit to someone else. I can actually use a pen and give my shit to someone else. I can sign my name, even.

But, at the moment, having a blood relation is still more important. The children I have will automatically have a claim to my shit because they have my blood (even though they went to the University of Florida, which clearly makes me think they are not MINE, but whatever).

Somehow, modern society (read: religious types) have decided that gay people don't want to give their shit to anyone. The shit they accumulate has to go to someone, but that cannot a child because they are gay and can't have sex to make babies, therefore, there's no point in letting them get married because they can't have babies to pass their shit down to.

This is it. That's the whole point. That's the entire argument that anyone religious has- oh sure, they use religious text to back it up but the bible was a book based on society 2000 years ago. As far as I know, it's 2000 years later and shit has changed. Hell, people who previously couldn't have kids are having kids. Actually, people are having kids- all people: gay, straight, white, black, Asian, conservative and, ugh...University of Florida peoples (I know...I'm repulsed as well). People are having kids. And people have shit. And people want to give their shit to their kids.

I know, change is scary. There was a point in time where society didn't progress. People had slaves then. People drank water with shit in it. There weren't refrigerators and we ate fresh food because everything else killed us. But somehow, we've evolved and changed and matured and grown and managed to make life a thing that's not a huge challenge to start or hold on to. In fact, the biggest problem with life is people being assholes about how you want to live yours.

Somehow, religious types get the keys to...I was going to say "kingdom," but they actually believe that...keys to some kind of magical societal Ferrari. They get to say "BASED ON THIS BOOK WRITTEN BY RANDOM DUDES WHO HATED CHANGE, I GET TO TREAT EVERYONE WHO DOESN'T WANT TO LIVE LIKE ME LIKE SHIT." The caps are not mine. This is how these people sound. Religion has given people who are already tools more tools to basically say "I am right and you are wrong and that's that."

I'm not...against...religion. There are good things. Like bake-offs and Habitat for Humanity projects. But by and large, religion is a tool used to create an other- an us vs them society. "They don't like having sex with the people we like having sex with!? GOD WILL SMITE THEM!" I assume if God really wanted to smite folks, they'd have done it by now. Probably starting with those making life unbearable for the rest of us.

Well, I say unto you "You don't like giving people equal protection under our laws in this country? Let me help you pack." Yes, that's right. Let's find you another society to live in. Heck- how about we build us a time machine and you can go hang out with the folks that made the rules you want us all to live by? Hopefully you don't get stoned to death for shaving! You're not a hippie are you?

I am fucking sick of this shit. Society has moved on. People can fuck who they want and subvert nature itself because nature is indifferent to your rules. You can blow up laboratories, try to make laws and be a jerk about it as much as you want, but you physically cannot stop time from moving forward. I guess you can stop the Earth from existing by blowing it up, but until then, I will stay on the side of change.

Society and marriage have been a way for a long time, yeah. I wonder where it will be in 5000 years, assuming "we" as humans are even still here and breathing.

What's funny is that religious folks otherize themselves all the time. It's clever: claim you're the minority being persecuted and then blame everyone else's wanting to have equal legal protection as persecuting you and bam: you get what you want by being a dick to everyone else.

No, I don't believe this is what the modern LGBTQA (and I consider myself an "A," or ally) wants. I don't believe they want to seem persecuted so they can persecute the religious groups. However, what else do you call wanting laws to apply to you and not to others in a systemic way? Is this not the definition of persecution?

This may shock folks but I don't believe two men or two women or any other combination of LGBTQ folks getting the same legal protection as everyone else will cause the downfall of human society. I know. It's scary. There was a time when these same folks believed that African-Americans receiving equal protection would lead to the downfall of America. And the best part is that I'm sure these folks could make a case for it: they could point to a number of things that they define as now un-American from 50 years ago and say it's because of all these awful things. I could point to things being better, but that doesn't matter: I'm just wrong and they are just right.

I know, it's hard to want to change, hard to allow things to be different than they were in your imagined past, where you believed everything was good for everyone. But it wasn't the case- it simply wasn't. If you want to be who you want to be (religious- whatever), why is it beyond the realm of possibility that others want the same thing? Are people so unable to see beyond their own lives that they cannot imagine the lives of others?

It's sickening. And I hope things are changing. And I will do my best to promote this change, no doubt. I have since 2006/2007 and will forever.