Many, But Not Most

I meant to write this post at the beginning of the month, but you know how it is ? . . . . so like the other States in this God-fearing nation, the voters of Maine, by a narrow margin, struck down the right of gay people to participate in the social and religious ritual that is marriage. Emica, for one, worked very hard on the 'No on 1' campaign and I know she was bitterly disappointed. On the other hand, I saw lots of crowing on the part of the 'winning' side on the Interwebs about the 'victory of decency' etc. Well what is a blog, if not a place to sound off uninterrupted. so here goes . . . .

To the Opponents of the Referendum

( the pro gay rights side, if you will)

Take heart! The old, the Catholics and the ignorant who voted yes-on-1 are doomed! Each year more and more of them will die and eventually your numbers will prevail. Well as long as the ignorant demographic doesn't increase. Nationally, if not here in Maine, statistics are with you. Give it a few years. The only problem is that Maine is getting older and whiter every year and that does not bode well for progressives. Think about moving to Burlington where they actually vote for Socialists, instead of equating them with devils and the Anti-Christ. Taller mountains and Lake Champlain can stand in for Casco Bay.

To the Proponents of the Referendum

Yeah! We won a big one didn't we? Thank God those damned-able gays won't enjoy the privileges of marriage that we hetero-sexuals take for granted. Like the ability to oppress and keep our spouses in sexual and/or financial slavery. Not theoretical 'slavery', but actual unpaid- no escape - no control of your own fate - slavery to another person. If we allow gay marriage what will come next? Gay marriage taught in schools? Of course not! I hate to break it to you folks, but no curriculum at any level teaches marriage of any kind in public schools. No, kids don't learn what marriage is (or isn't) in school, they learn it at home. They learn what marriage is watching their parents screaming at each other, or while one of them sits at the kitchen table, nursing a black eye or worse. No, my fear is gay marriage would lead to more stories of spouses killing each other, or making the other person financially destitute or tortured in body and soul.

So to all those reactionary forces that banded together to 'preserve the sanctity of marriage', I say, 'OK. . . . now you own marriage. Your responsibility is to make each and every marriage in this State a relationship of mutual respect, of equality, of trust and of love. You need to show as much enthusiasm for sustaining lasting relationships based on mutual needs as you showed on excluding certain individuals from the right to sanctify those relationships between themselves. and if you don't do that . . . if you continue to support relationships that denigrate one sex over the other; if you tacitly support the rights of one part of a marriage to exert their 'authority' over the other member without their consent; if you stand by and let 1/2 of all relationships end in failure; if you support, in other words . . . . the status quo, then you need to get the fuck out of the way and give 'the other team' a chance to give this marriage thing a go. Understand?

Sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay from Huntsman,What Quarry?, Harper & Brothers, 1939 ( from a first edition I found in the outside stalls of Brattle Street Book Store in Boston)

My earnestness, which might at first offend,

Forgive me, for the duty it implies:

I am the convoy to the cloudy end

Of a most bright and regal enterprise;

Which under angry constellations, ill-

Mounted and under-rationed and unspurred,

Set forth to find if any country still

Might do obeisance to an honest word.

Duped and delivered up to rascals; bound

and bleeding, and his mouth stuffed; on his knees;

Robbed and imprisoned; and adjudged unsound;

I have beheld my master, if you please.

Forgive my earnesness, who at his side

Received his swift instructions, till he died.