Posted by: Lucie
Prop 8 Protests
So I thought I’d post some videos from the protests against Prop 8, passed on Nov. 4th banning gay marriage – because, well, it’s pretty cool to see communities galvanize themselves for justice like this. (Via)
It still boggles my mind that Prop 8 went through. If we ever needed evidence that heteronormativity still dominates life then this is it. As a collective society we seem to make so many fundamentally unsound assumptions. If a newscaster says, “Gender issues” – that’s taken as “Women’s problems”. If they say, “Racial issues” – that’s equated to “Black problem”. And “Sexual orientation” – “Gay”.
This ‘Othering’ of so many people really lays the basis down for hatred. And I’m not sure a lot of people really know why they hate other human beings so much. It’s usually evidenced by falling back on things like, “It’s just not right!”
I think some good (and compulsory) thought exercises would go like this… Contemplate that:
- Male is a gender
- White is a racial category
- Straight is a sexual orientation
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All very good points. I’ve never been to California but you get this impression from the media (I realise TV isn’t the best source of information but there you go) that it’s a particularly liberal state, relative to the rest of America. Hence the medicinal marijuana rallies and so on. But evidently not on this issue. Especially when you consider it prohibits gay marriage entirely, not just religious ceremonies.
But then I guess that’s what you get for electing the Terminator, who called his political opponents ‘girly men’.
P.S. Just to clarify for anyone who was unaware or otherwise wondering: those videos were pink to begin with, it wasn’t a conscious choice on our part
I think the whole idea of different “races” within our species only causes problems.
I too was under the impression that California is very liberal.
Arguments such as “it’s just not right” or “it’s in the bible” can’t be argued against and irritate me no end!
Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
Tom
Hey Tom.
Yeah, I think ideally we’d all like to be colourblind but I’ve come to realise it’s a very naive prospect in the face of history. There are differences that need to be acknowledged in order to cater for everybody. What was that cool quote I came across the other day…
“equality is not the elimination of difference; difference does not preclude equality” – (some academic that appears in my very detailed notes as ‘Scott’)
Anyway, I’m optimistic that there will be a strong backlash against this. It’s quite telling that it got passed several hours after the election, almost as if activists’ attention was diverted at the time.
Well, not any more.
I definitely don’t think that we can be completely colourblind. I know i’m not – it’s an innate, natural consequence of tribal living.
Not sure if you’ve read this New Scientist article from last year, but I found it very interesting: http://www.cranepsych.com/Psych/Born_prejudiced.pdf (Original link is: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19325952.000 but you need to be a subscriber).
Tom