I am crying, right now.

[angledge]

The California Courage Campaign reports that Ken Starr (of Clinton-Whitewater-Monica-Lewinsky infamy) & the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund will present their case to the California Supreme Court starting on March 5, 2009 demanding that the Court void 18,000 marriages of same-sex couples that were legally performed between June 16 & November 4, 2008 in that state. The same court that ruled that citizens of the State of California could not be denied the right of marriage by mere virtue of their sexual orientation will hear Starr’s pleas to not only deny those self-same citizens of the right to marry, but to validate the idea that a minority’s rights are subject to plebiscite. Ken Starr & his minions will, in essence, seek to force divorce on all those couples who simply took advantage of their right to make a legal bond with the person they love.

The Courage Campaign's website is featuring an incredible video with a simple message: "Don't Divorce Us". The song in this video is entitled “Fidelity” by Regina Spektor, who gave full permission to use it in the battle to overturn Prop 8 in California.

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo

As Americans who believe in the rule of law and fundamental civil rights, we know that Ken Starr and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund's shameful attempt to nullify these unions will not be vindicated in the eyes of history. We know that, ultimately, love will prevail, no matter how hard they try to fight it.

So simple, right??

Edmund Burke said all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Do something. Sign the petition.

Comments

[susimoscoso.livejournal.com]

i just sat on my sofa crying my eyes out at that video! it was beautiful, to see all the love and the happiness of those moments. i hate that people are trying to take that away. :(

[angledge.livejournal.com]

Sign the petition, let other people know what's going on, donate money if you have some to spare, & just keep talking to everyone you know about the issue. It's how we're going to win.

[oetam.livejournal.com]

Signed. Sealed. Delivered.

Don't give up hope. Hopefully sanity will prevail. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

Oh, and Ken Starr is an asshole.

[oetam.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah... I have to admit I wussed out and didn't watch the video. I did sign the petition, tho. I just don't feel like crying right now.

And did I mention Ken Starr is a f-ing asshole?

[angledge.livejournal.com]

The video is really sweet, but painfully sad because each & every person in the video is threatened by this stupid lawsuit. I hope they make another version of the video when we win.

Des, my old boss from San Francisco, just emailed me (about the video) & he said, "BTW - I despise Ken Starr. I think he is the only person who actually should be held in Guantanamo."

[caesarsalad77.livejournal.com]

Signed.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I think you'll like this comment.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

A comment by misterec on the post (http://community.livejournal.com/gay_marriage/282809.html) regarding this video over in gay_marriage: "Truth is, sometimes we can use our tears to steel our resolve to stand against injustice & the forces that would foolishly believe in their own imagined power to kill that most immortal & noble of human endeavors: love. I can't help but wonder if Ken Starr & his acolytes really understand who & what they are fighting when they seek to joust with what amounts to an army of lovers."

Re: I think you'll like this comment.

[misterc.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Ang, for helping to spread the Good Word! I am honored that you saw fit to share my words with others who need to know that the battle still rages.

When I think about what those stone-hearted Prop 8 supporters are trying to do in California (namely, shatter so many hearts, and so many families, and so many lives) by blithely attempting to undo the bonds of a love that they obviously don't have the capacity to understand with not so much as a second thought, I can't help but wonder if they have ever taken even a moment to consider that they are breaking not only our hearts, but also the heart of the God so many of them claim they speak for.

I wonder if all the potentially broken (at least legally-speaking) families causes any of them even a slight twinge of guilt or regret? I wonder if they wonder, when their journey on this earth is done, and they must kneel before their Lord and confess all, how they will account to their God for all the time & all the effort they happily put into murdering love...or, at least trying to...when so much else in this hurting world needs tending to, like poverty, and hunger, and homelessness, and sickness...the real evil swirling around us.

I wonder if they ever allow even a micro-second of doubt into their beyond-certain allegiance to a dogma they obviously love more than their fellow human beings.

I wonder if any of them lie awake at night, in the silence of their happy, legally-protected homes & ask themselves if they're doing the right thing in so actively contributing to the sorrow & the fear they are spreading by ripping those same legal rights away from people they will never know...and probably never want to know.

I wonder how hard they have to work at being so blind to the river of tears they are causing & how much effort goes into being deaf to the cries of families whose whole lives may be ripped out from underneath them, in the name of protecting the sanctity of an institution that so many of them hypocritically defile every day with their quickie-divorces.

I wonder if one day they will find the ability to contemplate the glaring & ugly hypocrisy in claiming to simply be following their own hearts by denying the hearts of those who happen love differently than they do.

Mostly, though, I wonder why it's more important to them how we love than that we love.

Re: I think you'll like this comment.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

I don't understand how their minds work. What I do know is that we can change the minds of the people who are in the middle - people who are kinda squicked out by homosexuals in abstract, but when they get to know us, realize we are just fine.

My grandma has recently moved into a retirement home & the staff there has taught her how to use email. Recently I emailed her a photo of my fiancee & myself. She emailed back that she printed out the photo & put it on her wall. When anyone asks her about it, she says, "That's my granddaughter & her beautiful wife" (Grandma's jumping the gun a bit but I am FINE with it!).

I think small acts like that continue to normalize our relationships in the minds of millions of people.

"...strong in the broken places."

[misterc.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful point! What you write about the world "get[ting] to know us" which is the key to our ability to "change the minds" of those who haven't already slammed theirs shut, I am reminded of why I have never given up hope that "the way things are" can be remade.

Whatever fear abounds in this world toward people like us almost invariably comes from ignorance about who we are. If you don't know of someone who is of a minority sexual orientation & all you've ever known is what has been spoon-fed to you from others with the aforementioned closed minds and/or from people who are themselves ignorant about people like us, then you usually have no reason to doubt what you've always heard & believed is undoubtedly true. Unfortunately, we humans find it irresistibly easy to fear & even hate people & things which we do not know. That doesn't make it right or fair...just true.

Towards the end of my closet world, when I had become so tired of hiding & tired of hurting & even tired of "living", I came to finally understand that the act of coming out was not just something I needed to do for my own life & my own dwindling sanity; it was for all the others in this world who suffered in silence & weren't strong enough yet to stand up for themselves...for the unknown numbers of my brothers & sisters who didn't understand the power they've always had to loose the chains that have always tethered them to the lie that they are somehow less. By finally understanding that the world could not hurt me or hate me any more than I had hurt & hated myself for being a "living", (barely) breathing lie, I was truly set free.

I know now that my refusal to cower in silence any longer & to begin my search for "me"--in some small way--makes the path for the next person who finally becomes sick & tired of being sick & tired a little easier to tread.

From the darkest of my days hiding in plain sight, I have learned that, in the midst of our real or perceived brokenness, whether at the hands of the world or even by our own hands, it can be nearly impossible to dream of or hope for a better day, but, for so many of us--too busy hiding to notice--the power to change not just our own reality, but the world, actually lies in the debris of our nearly-destroyed lives. All we have to do is claim it. Easier said than done, right??

As Ernest Hemingway wrote in his novel, A Farewell To Arms, "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places."

[marasca.livejournal.com]

Signed.

Look at it this way though - the court might have agreed to hear the case because they think it's bullshit and want to overturn Prop 8 (or at least let the marriages that already happened legally stand).

[angledge.livejournal.com]

Considering this is the same court that legalized gay marriages in the first place, I can't imagine they are going to be very receptive to Starr's case.

What makes me cry is that he's willing to try anyway.

[b-hulsmans.livejournal.com]

I have no idea if a belgian signature is going to help, but I signed the petition anyway.
I hope this ban on marriage is overturned soon!
all the best of luck.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

What is the status of gay marriage in Belgium?

[b-hulsmans.livejournal.com]

we can get married without problems.
married same-sex couples have the same rights as straight couples. And if I am not mistaken European law dictates any member state of the EU has to recognize our marriages.
and we can adopt if we want to

[angledge.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, we're moving to Belgium.

[b-hulsmans.livejournal.com]

you are more than welcome here. :-)

[angledge.livejournal.com]

I wonder if I could get a job over there.... my company has offices in Brussels & Ghent. But I only speak English!

[b-hulsmans.livejournal.com]

I think it's technically possible to get a job here as an english speaker, but difficult.

[fizrep.livejournal.com]

I hope Starr and his bigot employers get their asses handed to them.

I'm not exactly Mr Morality... but I have and always will strongly feel that two people who love each other can do whatever the fuck they want as an expression of that love. Sheesh.

On a side note, how's the Shaymonsta doing? (I got a bottle of that Shea Butter handsoap you had at Darrin's place. I told Astrida it was because her hands get dry from endless hand sanitizer at work, but it was really just to make "Quit putting your hands all over Shay" jokes. I'm so predictable. =( )

[angledge.livejournal.com]

Heh, jokes about Shay/shea butter are pretty standard fare in our household. She's doing well, enjoying car ownership, working on a play. Email her sometime....

[fizrep.livejournal.com]

What's her email address? I only have her digits.