Taking away my rights is wrong

I answered the door this morning, and a man smiled at me from my porch. "I'm here from Yes on Proposition 8," he said. That's the evil-spirited California proposition to amend our constitution to strip same sex couples of the right to marry legally in the state, which we currently have.

I smiled back at him, and said, "Oh, well then I hope you go to hell. Now get the fuck off my property." (I really did say that. I have witnesses.) And then I slammed the door.

A minute later I thought I'd tell him that I'd be following him up and down the block as he spoke to my neighbors, making sure they all understood that, if they bought the shit he was selling, it was me whose rights they'd be taking away. And my neighbor, who was outside washing his car, was laughing. "I almost told him not to go up there," he said. "But I'm glad I didn't, because that was great."

I laughed, but then I held out my hand. "I'm shaking, though." And I was.

He shook his head. "He must not know where he is."

Well, he was definitely at the liberal end of the block, because all my immediate neighbors felt the same way, but I'm sure plenty of the folks he called on were somewhat receptive to his message. I know, because while I'm a lesbian living in San Francisco, I'm also a fourth generation native San Franciscan, and I know my City... and my neighborhood... very well. I grew up here.

Although I'd signed up to phone bank against Prop 8 already, I'd passed on going door to door. First off, it kind of scares me, and secondly, I figured, what's the point? San Francisco's certainly not going to go for this thing.

But I'm looking at it differently now. It's not like San Francisco will be winner takes all on Prop 8; every single vote matters, and there are people here who will vote for this thing. Many of them will do it because they believe outright lies, such as the one I keep hearing that if this right isn't taken away from us, churches will be forced to marry same sex couples. I think I, who was raised Irish Catholic here in the City, attending parish schools and growing up in the neighborhood where I now live, can do some good there by looking them in the eye and pointing out that the Catholic Church doesn't recognize marriages performed anywhere other than at their altars, and doesn't recognize divorce, and yet, no one has ever tried to make them marry divorced couples or recognize the marriages of those wed at City Hall or at the local Lutheran church.

I'd already donated to Equality for All, and am phone banking for them tomorrow night. If you're reading this, please donate to them, too. This is a fundamental matter of equality and civil rights. And taking away people's  rights? It's wrong.

Comments

[Red]

Amen. I can come over and be your official ball-kicker, if you want. I'll wear my pointy-toed boots, even!

[Gina]

I continue to be astonished and appalled that anyone would care so much about who *someone else* marries that he'd walk precincts to support the effort to deny you the same rights as he has.

What IS the matter with these people?