Look, I was too emotional to post about this before...

[zana16]

But fuck it. California, you fucking let us down.

Let me tell you about my cousin. My cousin is a gorgeous thirty-something elementary school teacher. She met the love of her life. They moved in together and were all set to live happily ever after.

Then a few years ago, in San Francisco, there was an experiment. Same-sex couples were issued marriage licenses, mostly to see if the legal challenges could stand up in court. My cousin and her partner got married. They'd never expected to be able to do that. But they did.

And the court told them their marriage didn't count.

They started to plan on having kids. They decided to have a commitment ceremony. Which was gorgeous, and I'm lucky enough to belong to a family where same-sex couples are a non-issue. Everyone was happy for them, though after the ceremony several people said privately wouldn't it be great if this were "real", but fortunately they didn't say this in the presence of the brides.

Outside of a small circle of friends, their marriage wasn't "real."

They had two wonderful children together, and had to go through a zillion legal hoops so that their children could belong to both of them, that there'd be clear custody if one of them were to die or something. Which was shitty about the legal hoops, but awesome about the kids, who are possibly the cutest things ever (not that I'm biased or anything).

Then, then California seemed like it was getting its act together. The courts said that marriage licenses to same-sex couples would be recognized now. We all rejoiced.

So a few months ago, my cousin and her wife of five years got married for a third time.

And now you fuckers tell them that their marriage doesn't count. That commitment means nothing. That their love is somehow not valid because... because why? Seriously, I just don't get it.

It makes me sick to my stomach.

Comments

[shadowgoddess42.livejournal.com]

Grey has some friends who recently got married in CA, so he's been keeping an eye on this. According to the information that he's found, CA will continue to honor same-sex marriages that happened within this last period.

It doesn't make CA not passing it any better, but I thought you might want to know.

[zana16.livejournal.com]

Silver lining, right? It does make me feel better, if only for them. I still feel my homestate let me down.

[cosmorific.livejournal.com]

1) Please don't pin this on all Californians. Almost 50% of us voted against it, myself included, and we're fighting like hell to get it overturned.

2) The courts may very well overturn it on the grounds of unconstitutionality anyway, as they did the last time (Knight Initative, anyone?).

3) At the risk of sounding like a whiner, California's not the only state where this kind of shit was on the ballots. Florida and Arizona pre-emptively banned even civil unions, and then there's that lovely "no unmarried adoptive parents" thing Arkansas passed.

[zana16.livejournal.com]

I want to pout and say "But California is supposed to be the gay utopia and the rest of the country can jump in a lake!" Which is very totally childish of me.

I absolutely don't pin this on all Californians. I don't know a single one who voted for it, so my theory is that the culprits all live in San Diego, where I know no one.

On some level, I'm upset because though I consider myself a Californian I don't live there these days so I can't vote on things that actually matter--the big issue up for a vote in Maryland, besides the (yawn) constitutional amendment authorizing the state to borrow money to build libraries and jails, was slot machines. And there were attack ads about slot machines. It was lame.

[cosmorific.livejournal.com]

I remember the attack ads about the Indian Casinos when that was on the ballots in California, about ten years ago. Those ads could not have been more blatantly funded by the big casinos in Las Vegas and Reno, and the voters rightly told them to go piss up a rope and voted for it.

I certainly don't know anyone who voted for it either, so I like your San Diego theory. (I once knew someone from there who was in favor of Prop. 187.)