Re: Maine, Yesterday

Just a few thoughts about yesterday’s decision by the state of Maine to not legalize gay marriage.  These quotes are from Maine’s Stand for Marriage website, which I will NOT direct traffic to here:

If Question 1 fails and LD 1020 is allowed to take effect, marriage will be redefined to be about any two consenting adults without regard to gender, the focus being only about what the adults want for themselves, and not what is best for society as a whole…The reliance on marriage as an important fabric of society will no longer matter…

This is so weird to me! Americans hate communism, but this sentiment is a fully communist sentiment. The point of marriage is ONLY about what the adults want for themselves. I didn’t say “I do.” to “society as a whole”. I said it to ONE person, and it wasn’t for the greater good, it’s because he has a big penis I love him. Also, if I didn’t have the state’s permission to marry him, I’d have done it anyway. Spending my life with Rob is worth going to jail for. I’m so thankful that isn’t the case.

A wealth of examples have been identified by legal scholars who have pointed out the conflicts that will arise between the rights of people who sincerely disagree with homosexual marriage, and the rights of homosexual couples to demand that the state enforce gay marriage whether people support it or not.

I agree that the rights of people who sincerely disagree with homosexual marriage need to be protected. Case after case have already been brought to court involving wedding professionals (especially photographers and clergy members) who refuse to work on gay weddings, citing their religious beliefs – or their simple disgust – and this is not right.  (Sidenote: although it angered as a human, I also support Ken Bardwell‘s decision to refuse to marry two people of different races as being his right as an American citizen.)  But they’re wrong; LD1020 was written with clauses put in specifically to protect those people.

Most troubling is the impact on children, particularly as the public schools begin the process of indoctrinating them on the subject of homosexual marriage.

These consequences are not hypothetical – they have already occurred in states like Massachusetts where homosexual marriage has been legalized.

In Massachusetts, which legalized homosexual marriage, children in second grade are taught in public schools that “same-sex marriage” is the same as traditional marriage, that they can grow up to marry either a boy or a girl, that either option is the same. What’s more, parents cannot opt their children out of such “instruction.”

Well, that’s what you get when you ask the government to educate your children. They get taught things the state thinks is best, not the parents.  Also, I’m calling a foul: shameful use of quotes to make your concerns seem about something more sinister.

In the end, the losers yesterday are the people who are stopped at the emergency room doors as their loved ones lay dying just beyond, the parents who loose the rights to their children because they aren’t “really the parents”, and the families who don’t have the protection that I’ll get to have as a mom when I have kids.  It’s so scary.  It’s so wrong. Where’s the protection for those that need it the most?

I leave you with this. It’s from Ireland’s campaign to legalize gay marriage.