Green Oasis

The Nevada legislature has voted a domestic partnership bill into law, overriding a veto by the governor. I’m a little prouder to be a Nevadan today.

If I were in the market for marriage today, I would probably opt for a domestic partnership. I would feel hypocritical to enjoy a marriage when that’s not an option for so many of my fellow citizens.

Add Maine to the list of states who recognize our right to pick our marriage partners for ourselves. And New Hampshire is poised to follow suit.

The producers of that same-sex marriage storm commercial had to know that they were going to be mocked, right? Satire is a beautiful thing. (via Dancing with Crazy)

Oh! and then there’s this.

Oh Colbert! Why can’t everyone make as much sense as you? (via Dancing with Crazy)

In response to the protests of the passing of Proposition 8, the LDS church made a press release asking for civility:

Attacks on churches and intimidation of people of faith have no place in civil discourse over controversial issues. People of faith have a democratic right to express their views in the public square without fear of reprisal. Efforts to force citizens out of public discussion should be deplored by people of goodwill everywhere.

Methinks the irony is thick. They ask that for us to protect their right to free speech (so far, so good) by silencing the free speech of others (Danger, Will Robinson!). I agree that no one should be threatened with physical violence for speaking their mind in a liberal democracy. Every person has a right to speak out in the public square. Other people who think that person is full of shit are free to disagree, free to have their criticism heard, free to try to drown out voices of hatred and division. The LDS church’s attempt to silence opposition through playing the victim card has me worked up.

It seems like many Mormons feel threatened by people like me who recognize the right of homosexual couples to choose their marriage partners. They imagine me plotting the destruction of their Mormon lifestyle, meeting in dark rooms to discuss dark thoughts whispered seductively in my ears by demonic voices. To them, I am a foot soldier in Satan’s army, mustered against them in the Mormon version of Ragnarök. What those frightened Mormons don’t understand is that I would be one of the first to fight for their right to party Mormon-style no matter how much I disagree with their lifestyle. Believe me when I say that I would love to leave them alone in their corner of the room, if only they would leave the rest of us alone.

I confess to feeling a certain amount of schadenfreude at the perplexed distress of those pusillanimous, bigoted souls among the Mormons. They live in fear of freedom and an open horizon. They prefer the squalid security of their chthonic burrows. Their desire to exert control over a scary world where people disagree with each other has led them to betray the memory of their Mormon ancestors who fought for their own right to choose their spouses. These modern Mormon mobsters have become the persecutors who want to define marriage for other people. They deserve to twist in the wind a bit, to have their not-so-secret hatreds and fears exposed to the razor of public scrutiny and derision.

To the Mormons who didn’t support the suppression of the right of same-sex couples to marry and who now feel unfairly targeted, didn’t your mother warn you about hanging out with a bad crowd? What happened to avoiding even the appearance of evil?

Democracy can be an unforgiving place. I hope we never forget the LDS church’s consistent foot dragging on equal rights for people of all races and all sexes. Today’s support of Proposition 8 and other similar measures is just part of a pattern. I am willing to forgive if they are willing to renounce the bigotry of the past and actively work for the freedom of all (a freedom they seem to want to reserve only to themselves).

New York Times: Mormons Tipped Scale in Ban on Gay Marriage (via Main Street Plaza)

Jodi Mardesich at Salon: “I have been a Mormon my whole life. But after the church’s campaign of hatred to ban gay marriage, I finally renounced my membership.” (Proposition 8 made me quit the Mormon church, via Main Street Plaza)