Great Balls of Fire

Wow, whole lotta craziness with this Proposition 8 deal right now, huh?

I was talking to some Jews about it the other day, (I know. Shocker there), and one made the point of how happy he was that gay marriage was being banned, how filthy, loathsome, yadda, yadda, yadda, etc, etc, etc.

[sigh]

Oh my Jews. My silly silly Jews.

Firstly, what does Prop 8 have to do with us that you feel the need to support it? We go by ketubahs. Ketubahs, and therefore Judaism in GENERAL, only recognizes marriage between a Jewish man and a Jewish woman. PERIOD. Heterosexual marriage between a Jew and a non-Jew isn’t recognized and neither is a solely civil heterosexual marriage between two Jews recognized. The only requirement and deal-sealer is the ketubah.

(I mean, that’s LITERALLY the ideology behind the scams in places like Crown Heights and Williamsburg. Get halachically married with a ketubah, but not civilly/legally, have bastions of kids. According to Torah law, you’re married and in the clear. According to the state you’re not, so now you get tons of welfare because you’re a “single mother”. Yay loopholes!!…Oh wait. Was I not supposed to say that? My bad, guys…)

So the determination of what legally/civilly defines a marriage according to American law really isn’t a race we have a horse in.

Also, take a step back for a moment and see who’s endorsing Prop 8: the Religious Right. Sorry. I misspelled that. Lemme try again: the Religious [CHRISTIAN!]Right. The question/issues of whether homosexual marriage is “moral” is being looked at through the Christian lens of “morality”. Not only is that a potentially dangerous abrogation of Church and State, it’s also just potentially dangerous PERIOD.

This is America. It is a democracy, not a theocracy. We don’t get to veto things just because whatever personal religious beliefs we have conflict with public policy. Which means if there’s an anti-abortion bill on the table, you vote against it whether you’re pro-choice or not. Why? Because if you vote for it, you’re giving the government precedent to be able to tell its citizens what they can and cannot do with their own bodies, which is just not a freedom that should ever be given up.

Likewise, to deny an entire segment of a population access to a basic human right such as marriage? Um, no. [I’m looking at my Black folk too. Haven’t we jumped enough brooms? Altho I must admit the visual of a gay couple jumping over a stack of Madonna and ABBA cds and a pair of Pradas to get married does sound amusing. Of course, if you’re Black, it’d be Lil Bow Wow cds. Wait, he’s NOT gay? Oh. My bad again.].

Anyhoo, you can’t just count on the fact that you will always be on the side of the majority. That’s how a democracy works. Yesterday it was anti-miscegenation laws. Today it’s anti-same sex laws. Tomorrow it might be anti-miscegenation laws AGAIN. One day the majority are people who believe abortion is wrong, and you’re ok with that, so you wholeheartedly support every anti-abortion/abortion restricting bill they propose. But when human baby-eaters become the majority? They now have precedence to pass legislation making it illegal NOT to eat a baby just because of your own short-sightedness.

Of course, that’s an extreme example [and you should prolly leave America quite expeditiously should said scenario ever come to pass]. But you get the point. Cuz suppose one day the majority happens to be a bunch of people who think male circumcision is genital mutilation, unlawfully cruel, and ban it. We’d be in some sh*t then, now wouldn’t we, my Jews?

Try thinking about that next time you’re in the voting booth.