The Plague of Tyranny

Conservatives (read: fascist) groups in California want the state to delay granting marriage licenses to same sex couples, defying, of course, the recent State Supreme Court ruling, which held that the State cannot withhold such licenses – essentially confirming what anyone with half a brain and one pinky’s worth of reason understands: withholding the right of marriage to same sex couples is unconstitutional, and beyond that, simply irrational and immoral - how can you, in all good conscience, deny a right to an entire class of people? The ruling also confirmed that no argument based on logic and reason to support denying this right exists.

The ever-so stalwart Campaign for California Families warns us that in light of the recent ruling, “the plague of same-sex marriage will soon spread rapidly across the nation.” Lovely language indeed. The black plague of the Middle Ages? The plague the Bible speaks of that came down upon the Egyptians when they would not let Moses’ “people go”? The metaphor is ill-chosen: the same-sex couples I know are all extremely healthy ones – healthy in mind, spirit, body, and healthy in their relationships. What plague is that? Would that my own marriage had been as healthy as those same sex relationships. But even so, even if those same sex relationships were in some fashion unhealthy, if the individuals themselves were in some fashion unhealthy, so what? Do we deny marriage to heteros because in some fashion one or more of the partners, or the relationship itself is not healthy? Of course not.

The CCF advises us to “resist the Supreme Court’s tyrannical gay marriage ruling.” What tyranny? How is granting a right to same sex couples that hetero couples take for granted tyrannical? Is it not tyranny to deny such a basic right as marriage to an entire group of people?

But the CCF appears to be on a mission. A further inquiry into the organization’s website nets this glittering generality:
“Campaign for Children and Families is standing up for the best values the world has ever known. We are strong advocates of … religious freedom.”
What hyperbole – “standing up for the best values the world has ever known” – now there’s a reasonable, specific, supportable claim.

And how about that advocacy of religious freedom? CCF advocates for their religious freedom – for freedom to force their religious moral code on us all.

The CCF believes that in November, the good voters of the State of California will approve a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. And they are essentially asking the State to enforce that ban NOW- before it even exists.

The attorney for the state responded this way to CCF’s stance: "Such an action would be tantamount to putting the (ballot) initiative into temporary effect more than five months before it is even submitted to the electorate. The court would ... set a dangerous and highly questionable precedent were it to manipulate its own processes to accommodate a political interest."

Instead of trying to force their cruel, absolutist religious beliefs on us all, instead of trying to undermine the judicial system, instead of playing politics, the CCF should focus their attention on truly supporting families: how about advocating for a decent living wage? For more funding for public education? Quality child care programs? Tutoring centers? Prenatal healthcare? Healthcare for children? Would not such advocacy support families more than the dictatorial denial of a basic right to a group of people based on … religious belief?

Let the CCF have their religious freedom – if CCF members don’t wish to have same-sex marriages, they can simply not have them. Pretty simple solution. No one’s forcing anyone to marry anyone. Where’s the tyranny in that?