Hm. Chickens or human rights?

Wow. What a night and day after. I think I'm still in shock...the high was incredible! Then I read the news and was abruptly brought back down to earth.

In one of our nation's biggest elections ever, a young black man was elected president - while in California, voters passed Prop 8. Shatter one ceiling while building another. Talk about two steps forward, one step back. So now, in the state of California (supposedly one of the more progressive), all those gay and lesbian couples who celebrated their love by getting married are now in a state of limbo. I cannot imagine having a court suddenly tell me that no matter how much I love someone, no matter the fact that the State Supreme Court said it was ok, no matter that it's nobody else's damn business who someone loves...that my marriage was no longer valid. That my significant other would no longer be protected by law in the event something happened to me. And in another state, that even if I could marry, I would not be able to adopt children. What century is this again?!?

What really peeves me about this whole thing is that a majority of the money to push this absurd proposition came from an entirely different state! What the hell is Utah doing getting involved in California's laws? What, the Mormons aren't satisfied with running their own state - they have to run another one as well? Don't get me wrong - I respect the Mormon religion as a whole and have several Mormon friends. But I don't believe that it is right for money to be funneled into a state ballot measure from another state...another state that is run by a Church.

I don't know anyone personally affected by this. But I can point to a famous example: Ellen DeGeneres. The few pictures I saw of her wedding to Portia showed not two lesbians putting one over on the state, but two women blissfully in love and thrilled at the opportunity to demonstrate that love in the time-honored fashion. I can only imagine the devastation they, and thousands of other gay and lesbian couples, must have felt this morning.

We have overcome the color barrier - when are we going to overcome the gay barrier? When are we finally going to realize that people are people, no matter their orientation? That *everyone* deserves the same right to happiness as the local bigot hanging out down the street.

I'll say the same thing about gay marriage as I do about abortions: You don't like it, then don't do it. But don't force your beliefs or your rigid ideologies onto everyone else. We all, as a nation, deserve better than that.

But! On the plus side - the chickens in California now have more rights than half the human population. Now THAT is progress!