Posts tagged ‘AB 43’

« Older Entries Newer Entries »
December 3rd, 2007

Today’s letter – Silently tolerating nonsense

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger –

I like you because you’re a non-nonsense kind of guy. You drive a hummer and smoke cigars regardless of what people say. And just as effectively as you enjoy your own freedoms, you usually defend those of Californians. I would have even voted for you – except for one strange thing: you consistently and mysteriously block same-sex couples from having the freedom to marry.

There were many occasions when you could have stepped up and said something in support of this freedom. Way back when Proposition 22 was just a gleam in Pete Knight’s eye, you could have said “people should be able to do what they want” in the context of gay marriage instead of gay sex. When I was married in San Francisco in 2004 you could have said “we ought to change things so these people can get married legally” instead of just smacking down with the law. When the people and legislature asked you to sign AB 849 in 2005 and AB 43 in 2007, you could have said “I regret having to veto the bill.” Instead you gleefully sent it – and my freedom – back to ground zero.

Thousands of same-sex couples are just trying to make the same commitment of marriage you and Maria were free to make. Why do you tolerate the nonsense of domestic apartheid? Why do you stand silent while freedoms are being trampled?

I really expected more from you.

Yours,

Share

Posted in better things, domestic apartheid, domestic partnership, freedom, letters | No Comments »

Tags: , ,
November 29th, 2007

Today’s letter – Hate costs Dough

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger –

I wrote to you in July as an angry taxpayer about the cost of limiting marriage to heterosexual couples as revealed by The Williams Institute at UCLA.

Their recent analysis for Maryland revealed that their 8,000 same-sex couples, if married, would attract about $100 million of spending and $14 million in tax revenue EACH YEAR.

By comparison, their 2004 analysis of California showed that the 1977 ban on marriage costs us $16 Billion in spending and $25 million in tax revenue EACH YEAR.

As a taxpayer, I sure could use a slice of that dough, but as a gay man I would rather have the freedom to get married.

Whether it is fiscal responsibility, or just the right thing to do, I wish you would end your support of the costly ban on gay marriage and instead support the freedom to marry for all Californians.

Yours,

Share

Posted in bomb and preach, budget, economics, letters, necessary, the right thing to do, veto | No Comments »

Tags: , ,
November 15th, 2007

Today’s letter – This joy remains tinged with sadness

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger –

Next week, three generations of our family will gather around the dinner table: us, our newborn twins, and all four of our parents. It is amazing to watch our parents glow in the pride of their grandchildren – the first on both sides of the family.

Yet, this joy remains tinged with sadness. Unlike our parents, my fiancée and I are blocked from marriage. I am upset at being excluded from the time-tested security the law provides married couples, but what really makes me sad is that it deprives our parents of the hope of seeing their children’s wedding. All of the gratitude, joy and unqualified support that will be in that room that day are not going to create a world where we are free to marry.

We will be the only unwed couple at the table – the ones who had our kids out of wedlock – and until we can wed, we will always be thinking there is a small sense of shame when we – despite all our hard work – are grouped with Anna Nicole and Larry Birkhead as our parents shake their heads and cluck their tongues about the fallout from their unwed escapades.

I have been finding ways to convert the shame into anger, and I was surprised at how easy it is: we simply blame the fact that we are treated as less than equal, less perfect and less human than other couples directly on you, Governor.

You could have signed AB 849 in 2005; you could have signed AB 43 this past October; you could have said that you think all Californians should have the same freedom to marry. But you did none of those things.

It will take a lot more than you to spoil our Thanksgiving, but I don’t think I’m being greedy to say that I wish your support could have been one more thing for which to be thankful, rather than one more thing over which to shake our heads and cluck our tongues.

Yours,

Share

Posted in letters, mixed metaphors, shacking up, shame, the governor | No Comments »

Tags: , ,
November 3rd, 2007

Today’s letter – "yours"

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

You might be wondering why I sign my letters “Yours.”

You asked the Attorney General to annul my marriage in 2004. You blocked my freedom to choose marriage when you vetoed AB 849 two years ago and AB 43 last month. You refuse to stand with me in support of freedom and equality, and you insist that I endure as a second-class citizen until a seven-year-old referendum winds its way through the courts.

You control my family’s ability to access the security and stability that marriage provides, and you keep meddling with my human rights by doing things to me that you wouldn’t do to Britney Spears. You treat me like I am, actually,

Yours,

Share

Posted in letters | No Comments »

Tags: , ,
October 30th, 2007

Today’s letter – Orson Welles causes panic

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

Today is the 69th Anniversary of Orson Welles’ radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. His convincing broadcast caused panic in the real world. I want to tell you how the seven pro-LGBT bills that you signed are bringing on the real end of our world, an apocalypse stalled only by your veto of AB 43.

Mona Passignano, a spokesperson for Focus on the Family Action, said that the seven bills will “have a devastating impact on churches and Christian families in the state for years to come.”

Unlocking the door to the Four Horsemen’s stable is SB 777 that calls for public school administrators and teachers to work towards protecting students from harassment and bullying.

The Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports that SB 777 will require “all California public schools to positively portray homosexuality to children as young as kindergarten.”

Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), explains that “textbooks could be forbidden from portraying marriage as only between a man and a woman; textbooks could be required to present homosexual historical figures; and sex-specific Homecoming King and Queen contests could be forced to change. … This means children as young as five years old will be mentally molested in school classrooms.”

“The legislation might even mandate unisex restrooms.”

“Now that SB 777 is law,” says Meredith Turney, legislative liaison for Capitol Resource Institute, “schools will in fact become indoctrination centers for sexual experimentation.”

But SB 777 is not alone. LifeSiteNews.com explains that AB 14 “prohibits state funding for any program that does not support transsexuality, bisexuality, or homosexuality. This means state-funded social services operated by churches and other houses of faith, which provide essential services to children and adults, could dry up.”

Thank God that you vetoed AB 43, the bill that would have brought us the freedom to marry, and did your part to preserve the hatred and intolerance that is apparently the only thing between us and the end of the world.

Yours,

Share

Posted in apocalypse, hate, intolerance, letters, opponents of equality, teasing | No Comments »

Tags: , , ,
October 22nd, 2007

Today’s letter – If it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

Like all people, I have guilty pleasures; mine is Desperate Housewives on ABC.

As you may know, last night a gay couple moved onto the street. They introduced themselves as “partners” and Susan got confused, thinking they were co-investors in some business. Silly Susan was embarrassed, but Bob and Lee were humiliated, because their “Green Acres”-inspired relationship was sterilized down to a business transaction because of a word and a cruel law.

Everybody knows what marriage is. Having two sets of laws – and two words – to describe such simple things is just plain wrong.

It is too late for you to sign AB 43, the bill that would have let families like Bob and Lee’s choose ‘marriage’ instead of ‘partnership.’ But it is not too late for you to support the freedom to marry.

Yours,

Share

Posted in hate, letters, natural, the right thing to do | No Comments »

Tags: , , , ,
October 18th, 2007

Today’s letter – an opportunity to unite, squandered

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

Thank you for signing seven LGBT bills into law this session, but I wish you had also signed AB 43 to stop discrimination once and for all.

Signing AB 43 would have sent a clear message to the Opponents of Equality that no one group is more worthy of marriage than another, and all good citizens play by the same rules. A veto lets the Opponents of Equality continue to use access to marriage as a weapon to demoralize LGBT citizens.

Your choice to veto AB 43 simply divides us by our beliefs about discrimination, rather than uniting us with our beliefs about freedom.

Yours,

Share

Posted in freedom, letters, opponents of equality | No Comments »

Tags:
October 17th, 2007

Today’s letter – Focus on the Family lies

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

Focus on the Family lied, and you swallowed the Kool Aide. Citizenlink.com, the activation network of Focus on the Family, repeatedly refers to Proposition 22 as a “Constitutional Amendment,” such as in this article by their Associate Editor, Jennifer Mesko:

One of the bills, AB 43, is another attempt to force same-sex “marriage” onto the residents of California. In 2000, 62 percent of voters passed a constitutional amendment that states, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

That you signed seven LGBT-positive bills this session has poor Dr. Dobson in a thither, which is nice, but all those calls you got in support of your veto were based on misinformation – that Proposition 22 was a Constitutional Amendment.

What changes this from “shame on him” to “shame on you” is that your office did nothing to correct that misinformation, choosing to use it instead as a smoke-screen for vetoing AB 43 and my relationship.

Not everybody knows the gritty details of how Proposition 22 and AB 43 pass in the dark, but you do. You could have explained that Prop 22 covers 308.5 of the Family Code dealing with foreign marriages while AB 43 restores Sections 300 and 302 to their pre-1977 traditional language, “marriage is between two persons.” But you choose to ride the Focus on the Family Wrongmobile instead.

Depriving me and my family from making the commitment of marriage is wrong, but using convenient misinformation to deny basic freedom is perhaps worse.

Yours truly,

Share

Posted in letters | No Comments »

Tags: , , , ,
« Older Entries Newer Entries »