This afternoon I received the agenda for my local town council meeting to be held tonight and on it was a speaker against proposition 8. Okay, two thoughts popped into my head: 1) Prop 8 has already been voted on; 2) How is this an issue that the town council needs to address?
I could not attend due to prior commitments, but my mom did attend. Two people spoke, one was a lesbian who voiced her troubles in getting child support after separating from her partner 10 years ago; the second was a bisexual lawyer who felt that if you love someone, you should be able to marry him/her.
The woman said that all of the ads in favor of prop 8 were lies and it made her sick to her stomach to see all of the signs in favor of prop 8.
When it was time for questions, someone asked if domestic partnerships don't allow the same rights as marriages. The woman said a domestic partnership is for second-class citizens. The lawyer said that domestic partnerships provide for the same benefits as marriage but domestic partnerships are only recognized in California and not in other states.
A side note, this was the lowest attended town council meeting in a very long time, with only 20-25 people in the audience.
I felt this is important to post because I think it is important that we are aware of what is going on in our local communities. The question was raised, "How did we let it get this far." By not knowing what is being said at our town council meetings, by not telling our city council people our thoughts, by not voting because we think our vote doesn't matter.
Here is what we need to do NOW:
Voice our opinions in our local communities.
Reach out to our neighbors.
Write letters/make phone calls to our political leaders.
Now is not the time to sit back just because one issue was voted in our favor. Now is the time to stand up with the other 6 million Californians and reach out across the nation. Our grassroots effort is not over... it has just begun!
Monday, December 1, 2008
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9 comments:
love your blog heather!
Wow, I don't know how your Mother sat there through all that chaos listening to those people. Props to her for going to represent the good side :)
Did the No on 8 speech-givers say what they hoped to accomplish with that city council meeting? It sounds like they just wanted a public forum to vent.
Thanks for the tips in your post!!
~Jouranlista
http://thejournalistachronicle.wordpress.com
Journalista - They had two main objectives in attending the meeting.
1) They felt that they lost because people were misinformed. They are successful, patriotic people with children and they want everyone to know how deeply hurt they are by the vote.
2) They are promoting the movie "Milk" which is about Harvey Milk, one of the first gay activists.
I also received an email from another friend who attended the meeting. I'm waiting for permission to post his thoughts, but they are along the same lines as mine... we've been too complacent for too long. We need to stand up for what we know is right.
Choose love instead of hate.
Why is it that the only thing about marriage that matters to you people is stopping same-sex couples from getting married?
jesu, why is it that you insist on putting words in people's mouths and thoughts in their heads?
Jesurgislac,
You sure do make the rounds. I have seen you commenting like mad on a number of pro-marriage blogs of late. It's a wonder you have any time to...oh, say...eat, sleep...or even work? You're pulling overtime, my friend, and many of your comments are filled with the same baseless (and wild) assumptions that you have purported here. I may not be Mormon, but I know many of them and they certainly don't fit your snide stereotype of only caring about stopping same-sex marriage. While you're busy writing stupid accusations on respectful blogs, Mormons are out there cleaning up after political and natural disasters, providing aid to people around the world in the form of monetary donations, physical labor, school supplies, medical supplies, education, home rebuilding, and more - much, much more.
Frankly, I'm surprised you haven't been banned from the Internet by now for being a complete nuisance.
Step down from your virtual temple wall; walk away from your virtual protest. If you want to do something useful, stop attacking peoples' religion and start serving your neighbors like the Mormons do. If gays would act more like Mormons, it would do more for their cause than any rage-induced, foot-stomping, temple-defacing tantrum.
jesurgislac,
i'm pretty sure mormons care about a lot of facets of marriage, however, the most threatening is that the state of CA for a number of months decided it was okay to extend the defintion...hence the discussion...is that okay? to discuss current topics?
as someone who lives next door to a mormon, i can tell you that they care about marriage a lot. they are always talking about it. about how to have more fun with family, about how to do more things as a family, about how they don't want to get divorced like their parents.
same-gender marriage is just the hot topic. and important i think.
It certainly is time to unite and fight against forces which try to destroy love life and marriage.
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