Have you heard it? The tense whispers, the fraught rumors, the legal speculations… Some people have been asking themselves the difficult question: What’s the point of getting married, if it could all be taken away from us?
Having one’s marriage nullified is a chilling thought. Some ask, how could I ever face that? Couples who were married in San Francisco in 2004 may ask themselves, how could I ever put myself through that again?
By succumbing to our fears and caving into their threats, we embolden the anti-LGBT groups who are trying to take away marriage from us. By looking at our own marriages the way they do—as separate, unequal, unworthy—we make their point for them.
Getting married is a BIG decision. But if it’s a decision you’ve made, don’t feel you have to back out of it now.
The opponents of the freedom to marry want as few lesbian and gay couples as possible getting married this summer. They want married, same-gender couples to be a scary possibility, a hypothetical danger, rather than real flesh-and-blood loving, committed – and normal – families. Once their enemy has a face, a name, a legal wedding, it’s a lot harder for them to portray LGBT families as threats.
A marriage is not just an agreement between two people. It’s an agreement between a couple and their community. When lesbian and gay couples get married, they open up their lives to their friends and families and share their love with them, making them stakeholders in the marriage. Your wedding is a pledge to the community and a message to people who are undecided—a testament of your love and commitment. How can someone deny something so innate as wanting to be with the person they love, when they see public affirmations of that love?
What we do know is that our marriages will still be legal in December when we defeat Prop 8. And we know we can defeat it! Millions of Californians, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sen. Barack Obama are already sending the message that we believe in fairness and equality. That’s loud and clear.
:: You can help preserve the freedom to marry by lending your time, treasure and voice to the cause.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
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1 comments:
As a registered domestic partner of nearly ten years, I'm sorta waiting for the state to finish the flyer they said they'd send out this summer about all this.
On one hand, we've already said our vows and our papers, on the other, it'd be really nice to finish things.
I pretty sure equality will win out this fall, but that's not exactly what I'm worried about.
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