"Traditional Marriage," My Ass

As many of you probably know, Prop 8 has passed in California--this will amend our state Constitution under the guise of "protecting traditional marriage" to thereby restricting gays and lesbians from marrying.

I have a problem with this. First of all, the "think of the CHILDREN!!11" rhetoric that the Yes on 8 folks brought out during their campaign was not only ill-argued, but idiotic. Honestly, I couldn't give less of a shit about parents who want to "protect" their kids from the supposed onslaught of homosexuals and "gay marriage being taught in schools" (I'm still trying to figure out what that even means). If you want your kid to grow up to be a bigot, that's your deal. I do not have a responsibility to your child or children to uphold the "traditional" nuclear family, or claim that I support it, because I really don't. The thousands of people whose marriage rights y'all have just denied? They don't owe it to you, either.

I do not support the "traditional" family structure (which, I am assuming, equals mom, dad, 2.5 kids, a dog and a white picket fence) because it perpetuates a standard that many of us--of all sexual orientations--cannot or do not wish to live up to. I refuse to bow to a traditional institution (heterosexual marriage) that says, basically, that I should put my limited energies into being a consumer, wife, and mother, just because that is what women are supposed to do. Perhaps this worked in the 1950s, but for the vast majority of people, this system is outdated and rather ridiculous. "Traditional" marriage is so tied to notions of the nuclear family, religion and consumerism that it needs to be deconstructed and re-assembled as something that will work for a wider variety of folks; I think gay marriage is a good start to such deconstruction.

When did marriage start becoming everyone else's business but that of the people who are marrying?

Getting your activism on: There will be protests all around the country for marriage equality TOMORROW, November 15th, 2008. Click here for a massive list of demonstrations, state-by-state.