19 June 2008

The "Destruction of Marriage" Amendment

Author and blogger John Scalzi has a very clear-headed take on the proposed anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution of California up on his blog at Destroying Marriages to “Protect” Marriage. Scalzi deftly brushes aside all the fluff & spin around this issue and lets you know precisely what the results would be:
What this means is that if the initiative passes, then likely thousands of legal, actual, state-recognized and sanctioned marriages will disappear overnight. Thousands of loving couples will be forcibly removed from the legal state of marriage, not because they have chosen to do so, but because others have decided that they shouldn’t allowed to be recognized as having a marriage. I imagine it will be single largest forced annulment action between married couples in the history of the United States. This initiative will unambiguously, concretely and irrevocably destroy marriages. This initiative murders marriages.

Naturally, this initiative is called the “California Marriage Protection Act.”

Go thou, and read.

4 comments:

Fran said...

I have to go back there later when I have the time to take it all in.

All I know is that my husband and I are really scared... Is our marriage over? (/snarkety snark snark)

David said...

(sarcasm)

Yes, yes I'm afraid it is. Gay marriage will force you to be a lesbian.

(/sarcasm)

But then again, you are pretty darn cute. I imagine some of our blog friends who swing that way will be quite pleased at the prospect ;)

Fran said...

Yes, the devils and "teh gays" made me do it!

I do have a Texan blogger friend, not in our OCICBW circle who might be behind this effort to destroy the sanctity of my married life!!

Thanks for the compliment. I have simply posted the one and only good picture that exists!!!

Anonymous said...

Actually, the way the amendment is written, it is not at all clear it will be retroactive. Amendments generally look forward. That will be a court issue for sure. Which is why we're marrying before November.

Also, at the moment the polls are close to 50/50. We're gearing up to fight. We are asking folks to donate to Equality for All rather than give us wedding gifts.

Also we have been impressed at the friendliness of most people to our marriage. Not just young folks, but older folks. Two of my emeritus colleagues came in to congratulate me today. Both of them are men of 70+. (Academic scientists are not necessarily liberals). The wedding industry people have not batted an eyelash as we bought coordinated outfits this weekend.

The first goal: we can't let it pass. The Dobson people, the Mormons, and the Knights of Columbus are all sending money. Let's see what the progressives can do.

IT