What WOULDN'T you do for God?

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I don't negotiate with terrorists (and by terrorists, I mean God)

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A challenge to Christians: Stop defending genocide

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OH CHRIST NOT AGAIN

Followup to: These are the people in your neighborhood

Hey, remember how a couple years back, the people living downstairs from us allowed their apartment to degrade into an abominable cesspool of live mice, dead mice, mouse shit, dog shit, garbage and other assorted filth? Remember how it caused a building-wide mouse infestation? Remember how they were subsequently evicted by the police while their apartment was completely stripped bare and sterilized? Remember how they FUCKING CAME BACK AND ACTED LIKE NOTHING EVER HAPPENED?

Well, we just returned from a shopping expedition three days before Christmas (don't do this), and when we pulled around the back to unload our various purchases, the very fat woman from the apartment downstairs was propping the door open to throw out some garbage. It's nice that she's actually throwing it out now, instead of letting it pile up everywhere, but as we walked past her, we were overwhelmed by the most intensely awful stench, somewhat like sauerkraut and that corpse-like smell that cooked meat acquires when it gets cold.

I had to literally run upstairs to get to higher ground and escape the malodorous miasma this woman left in her wake. I have no idea what horrors are currently lurking in her apartment, but it surely can't be anything good. I will never understand what makes these people think this is an acceptable way to live. It's absolutely un-fucking-believable that this is actually happening ALL OVER AGAIN. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE NOWADAYS.

California: Four legs good, two legs bad

One week ago, Californians voted 63% to 37% in favor of Proposition 2, an animal welfare law requiring farmers to confine veal calves, pregnant sows and egg-laying hens in a way that allows them to move freely. Californians also voted 52% to 48% in favor of Proposition 8, which enacts a constitutional amendment eliminating the right of same-sex couples to marry and reversing the validity and recognition of same-sex marriages. This right was already in effect, and had been since a California Supreme Court order this June, following a ruling in May. There have already been an estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages in California this year; Attorney General Jerry Brown believes these marriages will not be retroactively annulled, which leaves the state in a legal bind of recognizing some same-sex marriages, but not others. Even this is far from certain, as supporters of Prop 8 may sue to annul these marriages.

Take a moment to think about what this means. California is overwhelmingly willing to grant animals the right to walk around before being slaughtered for meat, yet they somehow just can't bring themselves to let two men or two women enjoy the benefits of marriage. While these are not mutually exclusive, this is indicative of a populace with its priorities so wildly out of order, they'll gladly take away the existing rights of their own family, friends and neighbors, while extending additional rights to animals.

California, you make me sick. There really is no more fitting emotion than raw and unceasing revulsion at people who would rush to strip equal rights from their fellow citizens. But the collective disgust of millions of freedom-loving Americans will erupt into blazing outrage, sweeping across the state and nation until equal rights are secured once and for all. You can count on it.

Not to single out California, of course. Floridians voted 62% to 38% in favor of Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, as well as any "other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof". Same-sex marriage was already illegal in Florida, but Amendment 2 goes further, banning similar institutions such as civil unions and domestic partnerships. This will invalidate domestic partnerships between heterosexual couples, eliminating benefits such as shared healthcare coverage, shared pensions and hospital visitation rights. The same thing happened in Michigan last year.

And it doesn't end there. In 1999, Arkansas' Child Welfare Agency Review Board introduced a policy: "no person may serve as a foster parent if any adult member of that person's household is a homosexual". The Arkansas Supreme Court unanimously overturned the policy in 2006. And so the people of Arkansas voted 57% to 43% on Tuesday to ban all unmarried couples, homosexual or heterosexual, from adopting children or serving as foster parents. Furthermore, Arizona voted 56% to 44% to enact a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, which was already illegal.

I can't say I'm surprised about Florida, whose local news is so bizarre, it's become a running joke across the internet. Or about Arizona, which just can't stop re-electing complete lunatic Joe Arpaio as sheriff. And Arkansas, well... it's Arkansas. But California? The state that, until Prop 8 passed, had a reputation as one of the most gay-friendly locations in America? What happened?

The scourge of Mormonism

Religion. Religion happened. According to religion, we should follow the laws of ancient texts to the letter and waste our time on the worship of nonexistent supernatural entities, instead of respecting the rights of mankind in contemporary society and working to solve real problems in the real world. And that is wrong. In a pluralistic nation, religion is an inappropriate basis for law, and there is not a single valid non-religious argument to support banning same-sex marriage. Every argument ultimately boils down to personal religious beliefs, or blind irrationality and ignorance. A single valid secular argument could prove that wrong, but there are none. Zero. And for this reason, the illegality of same-sex marriage should be viewed as an implicit violation of the establishment clause. The few churches that support same-sex unions are vastly outnumbered by the churches that work actively to forbid legal recognition of those unions. Just so we're clear on this: religion is the problem.

If anyone doubts the denial of equal marriage rights is perpetrated almost exclusively by religion, the Yes on 8 campaign posted a list of over 200 churches endorsing Prop 8, which they've now removed from their site. The list includes evangelicals, fundamentalists, Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Baptists, Southern Baptists, Pentecostals, and Scientologists. And Mormons. Especially Mormons. In an internal memo from 1997, Loren C. Dunn, a leader of the Mormon church, discusses strategies for working with the Catholic Church to ban same-sex marriage in California and Hawaii. He referred to it using the code word "H.L.M." Following the legalization of same-sex marriage in California in June of this year, the First Presidency sent a letter to be read in every Mormon congregation:

We ask that you do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time to assure that marriage in California is legally defined as being between a man and a woman. Our best efforts are required to preserve the sacred institution of marriage.

Thousands of Mormons subsequently volunteered for the Yes on 8 campaign, and at least 59,000 Mormon families donated nearly $20 million—over half of the total donations to Yes on 8. Private campaign notes distributed among Mormon leaders acknowledged that Prop 8 was mainly promoted by Mormons:

Elders Ballard, Christopherson & Clayton met last week with leaders of the Coalition for 2 hours. The brethren emphasized that there wasn't much participation from non-LDS people. The work depends on us.

Mormons bought Prop 8; without their support, it would have withered and died. They funded a campaign of fear and lies to force religious values upon people who do not share their beliefs. This is not an isolated occurrence. In 1998, Mormons donated $500,000 to the campaign for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Alaska, an overwhelming majority of the $600,000 in donations received by the campaign. This year, they donated $6.9 million to support an amendment against same-sex marriage in Arizona. And after what they've done, the Mormon church has the unmitigated gall to claim "it is wrong to target the Church and its sacred places of worship", and "call on those involved in the debate over same-sex marriage to act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility towards each other". Bullshit. Respect is earned, not granted on demand. They decided to poke their noses into our business, and we will not let them evade judgement when the tide turns against them. By working to repeal civil rights, Mormons have forfeited any respect they had prior to their contemptible display of bigotry. I will not respect any religion that disrespects my natural rights and the legal recognition thereof.

The Mormon faith is founded upon the laughable delusions of a man who married multiple underage women, some as young as 14—yet, on the basis of this faith, Mormons refuse to allow lesbians the right to marry one woman of legal age. In the 1800s, the government enacted multiple laws against polygamy specifically targeted towards Mormons. And now, Mormons are exploiting the political process and using the government to impose an even more restrictive definition of marriage upon everyone. For over a century, the Mormon church banned black people from joining the priesthood or participating in sacraments. They claimed people of African ancestry carried the curse of Cain, because Joseph Smith said so in his "scriptures". Brigham Young had this to say about black people:

You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind.... Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin.

Other Mormons said the spirits of black people were less virtuous than the spirits of white people prior to embodiment. John Taylor, the church's third president, claimed black people exist because "it was necessary that the devil should have a representation upon the earth". The church's ninth president, David O. McKay, said that even though they don't know why black people should be discriminated against, God said so, and apparently that's good enough for them. Various doctrines and church elders, including a 1947 letter from the First Presidency, stated unequivocally that marriage between black people and white people is forbidden by God. (Sound familiar?) The racist policies of Mormonism were not repealed until 1978.

And these people, with their despicable history of blatant disrespect for the most basic of rights, are so incomprehensibly arrogant that they've appointed themselves the ruling body on the rights of all humanity. They envision their church as the enforcer of an imaginary "divine authority" whose desires just to happen to be precisely aligned with their own. They are cowards hiding behind God, unwilling to be held accountable for their personal prejudices. But they will be. "God said so" is not good enough, ever. Their most recent offense against the dignity of man is a searing indictment of not only the Mormon church, but its individual members. The church has forever branded itself as a strident advocate of intolerance, division, oppression and hatred, and those who continue to follow the Mormon faith have committed an unforgivable sin against all human decency. As long as they threaten the civil rights of all citizens, pervert the rule of law with their bigotry, and justify it with mythological nonsense, we will have absolutely no qualms about telling them: Take your god and shove it.

Worst precedent ever

To understand the consequences of Prop 8's passage, we must examine the basis on which same-sex marriage was granted legal recognition. The California Supreme Court struck down statutory bans on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, on the grounds that equal protection requires the fundamental right to marry, which is protected by Article 1, Section 7 of the California Constitution, to be extended to same-sex couples. This is not a unique interpretation. In 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that "the marriage ban does not meet the rational basis test for either due process or equal protection", making it unconstitutional under the Massachusetts Constitution. Same-sex marriage has been legal in Massachusetts for four years. This October, the Connecticut Supreme Court found that the equal protection clause of the Connecticut Constitution protects the right to same-sex marriage, and the state's failure to recognize same-sex marriages is unconstitutional. Marriages will begin in Connecticut this Wednesday.

Prop 8 directly contradicts the equal protection clause. Same-sex marriage is a fundamental right guaranteed by the constitution, and Prop 8 amends the constitution to ban same-sex marriage; thus, Prop 8 alters the constitution to eliminate a fundamental right and reject equal protection. The ACLU has already filed a petition making this argument. It's an unbelievably dangerous precedent, and it affects everyone. This isn't just about LGBT rights, it's about rights period. If amendments removing constitutional rights are considered valid, this threatens every aspect of our freedom—and it's even worse in states like California, where amendments can be passed by a simple majority voting in favor of a ballot initiative. Whose rights will be repealed next? Whose equal protection will be denied next? It could be yours. If Prop 8 is allowed to take effect, it opens the door to every civil rights violation imaginable. Mormons could fund a campaign to ban all non-Christian marriages, or the "gay agenda" could vote to ban heterosexual marriage. Everyone else can vote to ban the practice of Mormonism. 51% could vote to execute the other 49%. There's no way around it: Prop 8 is antithetical to the traditional values of liberty our great nation stands for.

And yet there are still morons like Bishop William Weigand of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, Prop 8 supporter Neil Wilson, Charles Cox of Central Valley "Save" Marriage, Mormon Doug Clark of Seattle, churchgoer John Kirkpatrick of the Saddleback Church, and Larry Black, Richard McConnell and Yvonne Lee of Seal Beach who think a popular vote supersedes anything and everything. They are either ignorant or intellectually dishonest. Our country is not a pure democracy, where three wolves and a sheep vote on what's for dinner. It was never meant to be ruled by a mob. We live under a constitutional republic intended to protect the rights of the minority from the tyranny of the majority. Anyone who's taken the most basic class on American government should know this, but not enough people do. Rights are exactly that: rights. Not privileges, rights. It isn't very popular to acknowledge this, but the people simply should not be allowed to vote on rights. And the judicial system exists to interpret the law and protect these rights. Laws against interracial marriage were overturned once and for all by court ruling, not by popular vote. Were we supposed to follow the popular vote when the people refused to legalize interracial marriage? Should the courts have refrained from overturning such a vote? Any sensible person can see how absurd this is. If LGBT rights are not protected, nobody's rights are protected.

The next step

If you're as pissed off about this as I am, good. Few things are more intensely motivating than the sting of institutionalized injustice. Remember this feeling, hold on to it, and channel it towards the fight for equality. Over the past week, protests numbering in the tens of thousands have broken out, often spontaneously, in California, Utah and Washington. But the truth is, this needed to happen before November 4th. When Yes on 8 campaigners were screaming on every street corner like they were waiting for the Rapture to whisk them away, we should have been marching down those streets. This election demonstrated, quite painfully, that we can't afford complacency. We can't afford to stay silent. And we can't afford to underestimate the opposition. Those who stand against us are driven by a maniacal devotion to something that doesn't even exist. If we are to have any chance of defeating them, our dedication to freedom must exceed their commitment to extinguishing it. We need to get our act together, get organized, and above all, get out there. The importance of this issue warrants an attack from all angles, and we need to start right now.

A nationwide protest for gay rights will be held this coming Saturday. Find a protest near your area and attend it. Learn how to make effective picket signs. If no protest is planned for your area, organize one at a major city hall, Mormon temple, Catholic church (Catholics worked with Mormons to pass Prop 8), any church listed here, or any church you know of that spreads anti-gay sentiment—religious beliefs are not beyond criticism when they pose a threat to anyone's rights. Use social networks like Facebook and MySpace to get people together. It doesn't matter if you live somewhere like Missouri, Oklahoma or Georgia, where same-sex marriage doesn't seem to have a chance at being legalized. If you don't believe victory is within our grasp, why should anyone else? Even if you're in the most rural village in the reddest state, even if you're the only one who shows up to protest, it sends a visible message that this is important to someone, and that's far better than nothing. And if you're fortunate enough to live in a state where same-sex marriage, domestic partnerships or civil unions have been legalized, you need to remain especially vigilant. California has illustrated how quickly and easily our rights can be stolen, and we need to keep up the fight until equal marriage rights are secured in all 50 states.

Start a discussion group focusing on LGBT issues. It's really not that difficult. Eight months ago, I launched the LGBT reddit, which now has over 2,700 subscribers who post numerous links daily. I invite everyone to visit and participate. Start a website or blog, and write about this subject as often as possible. Link up with other relevant blogs in order to increase everyone's visibility. Post LGBT-related news on social news sites. Write letters to your newspapers advocating the recognition of marriage rights for everyone. Try to get the attention of the local media. Write to your elected officials and ask them to take a stand for equal rights. If you can get in touch with any celebrities, ask them to speak out in support of LGBT rights. They wield a critical degree of influence over public opinion. File a complaint with the IRS to revoke the Mormon church's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status for their political activities. Demand that Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress repeal DOMA, which forbids the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages—Obama supported a full repeal, and we'll hold him to that.

Boycott businesses and organizations that supported Prop 8, such as the Knights of Columbus. Boycott the Marriott hotel chain and other businesses owned by the Mormon church. Make sure they know why you're boycotting them. And make a point of patronizing businesses that respect gay rights, while avoiding LGBT-hostile businesses. If you're a member of a church and you disagree with its gay-unfriendly views, consider leaving. There are numerous congregations that respect gay people, in various degrees. Provide support to LGBT rights groups like the Human Rights Campaign, PFLAG, Lambda Legal, Invalidate Prop 8, GLAAD, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, GLSEN, Freedom to Marry, the Equality Federation, Equality California, Equality Arizona, Equality Florida, the Family Equality Council, Equality Utah, MassEquality, Equality Illinois, the Kansas Equality Coalition, Oklahomans for Equality, Equality Alabama, Wyoming Equality, Equality New Mexico, Equality Texas, Iowa Equality, the Kentucky Equality Federation, the Tennessee Equality Project, Georgia Equality, Equality Mississippi, Equality North Dakota, OutFront Minnesota, Fair Wisconsin, Michigan Equality, Equality Ohio, Equality Advocates Pennsylvania, Equality North Carolina, the South Carolina Equality Coalition, Equality Virginia, Marriage Equality New York, Garden State Equality, Vermont Freedom to Marry, the New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition, EqualityMaine, Equal Rights Colorado, Equal Rights Washington, Basic Rights Oregon, Indiana Equality, Equality Maryland, Marriage Equality RI, Delaware Pride, and the ACLU.

Talk to people you know and explain how important LGBT rights are. If you're in school, join the Gay-Straight Alliance or a similar club. If no such club exists, ask your school for permission to start one. If you have an inclination towards creativity, come up with some catchy slogans. Reframe the issue by repurposing phrases that have been used against us. Make this about protecting marriage, families and children from dishonest hate groups like the American Family Association, Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council. Draw attention to the "special rights" of heterosexual couples. Design visually appealing media and produce viral videos—if you don't know how, find someone who does. And finally, if you yourself are gay and still closeted, think about coming out to your family and friends. I know, it can be fucking frightening. But when people personally know someone who's gay, this strongly influences their opinions, and their opinions influence how they will vote. It's good for them, and it's good for the sake of your own sanity and well-being.

Needless to say, accomplishing our ultimate goal will not be easy. It will take several years, a decade, perhaps even several decades. But if we are discouraged by the immensity of the task before us, it will take even longer. Every moment you spend working towards equality will make universal legal recognition of all marriages arrive one moment sooner. This is the defining American civil rights struggle of our generation, and we know we can't wait for someone else to do the fighting for us. We will vanquish ignorance with knowledge. We will defeat fear with truth. We will show them what happens to a dream deferred, and they will know that no law can ever diminish the love shared by same-sex couples. Fight like your rights depend on it—because they do.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics; they will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks and months to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds, when we've been told we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes we can.

—Barack Obama after the New Hampshire primary

Yes, we did. And yes, we will.