Today’s letter - hate lost, now it’s time to do good

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

As you know, the California Supreme Court has decided that same-sex marriages will proceed, consistent with its ruling and the State Constitution.

In trying to convince the court to postpone the marriages until after a vote in November, the Opponents of Equality, specifically the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Campaign for California Families, claimed that “legal chaos” would result if marriage licenses were issued for six months and then blocked by a constitutional amendment. They might be right.

Well, the marriages are proceeding, and they are at risk of being overturned. If the Opponents of Equality truly want to avoid a nightmare scenario of national “legal chaos,” then it is their turn to give a little.

I think it would be sportsman-like and morally right for the Opponents of Equality to end their war against their neighbors and friends by taking the $10 million earmarked for divisive hate politics and contribute it towards healing the sick or feeding the poor. Or perhaps they could focus on the parental notification initiative that might bring a surprising number of allies from the lesbian and gay community.

Governor, please tell the Opponents of Equality – and your Republican colleagues – that fighting against the law of the land, and against California’s families, is unacceptable. Please ask them to end their support of the Constitutional Amendment to Limit Marriage.

Sincerely,

Today’s letter - don’t just wash your hands

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

In Church today we heard the Gospel of the Passion of Christ according to Matthew. In it, the Governor asks the people what prisoner they would like to free, thinking they would release Jesus (who had done nothing wrong). However, the chief priests had persuaded the people to ask for Barab’bas and destroy Jesus, who threatened their credibility. Pilate – despite his conscience and even the pleas of his wife – heeds the cries of the people, washes his hands and proceeds to crucify Jesus.

History repeats itself. These days, the Opponents of Equality are working overtime to convince the people to specially exclude same-sex couples from marriage, not for doing anything wrong, but because they have built their careers by defiling homosexuals. Legitimate Christian families like mine prove them wrong – and that could be costly to their credibility.

“So, when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying ‘’I am innocent of this man’s blood.’’”

Governor Schwarzenegger, are you going to stand by while today’s so-called leaders crucify my family? Or are you going to do something to help people who have done nothing wrong to fully participate in our economy and society?

I wish you would support the freedom to marry, because it is the right thing to do.

Yours,

Today’s letter - beware the Ides of November

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

The Ides of March must make politicians nervous. This was the day in 44 BC that Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by a group of Roman senators who believed Caesar intended to take over the Republic and turn it into a monarchy. The murderers justified themselves saying they were merely protecting the Republic but everybody knows they were merely protecting their own political aspirations.

Nowadays, the group using the rhetoric of protection claims they are “protecting” marriage. Randy Thomasson and the Campaign for Children and Families claim that same-sex marriage is the biggest threat to home and country, and we must exterminate homosexuals to protect our Democracy.

Of course, you can see through these Liberatores Governor. Marriage is not threatened – only political power. Their campaign is driven by political aspirations to knock out the Democrats. When they have accomplished that, who do you think they are going to turn to, Mr. Moderate Republican? Do you really think there room in their family for a foreigner who resists attempts to merge Church and State? Indeed, while today the back they are sticking a knife into is mine, tomorrow the back will be yours.

You have done a lot for the equality of all Californians, but you stopped short of supporting gay marriage. We could really use your help with the upcoming ballot initiative driving voters to the polls. Please tell the people that it is time to stop “protecting marriage” and start improving it. The back you save may be your own.

Yours,

Today’s letter - don’t just protect marriage, improve it

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

Marriage sure has gone through a lot of changes in the past centuries.

A girl’s father used to decide who his daughter would marry. Then there were bans on interfaith and interracial marriages. Nowadays, almost everybody can choose who they marry - except for me. A special ban on same-sex couples takes away my right to choose who I marry and gives it to the government.

The only person who should be making the choice of who I marry is me.

Governor, it is time to stop “protecting” marriage, and start improving it.

Yours,

Today’s letter - Let the Punishment Fit the Crime

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

As an American, I was taught that the freedom to express ones beliefs is fundamental to our society. But I was also taught that expression brings responsibility, and abuse brings consequences. Abraham Lincoln summed this up when he said “Those who deny freedom deserve it not for themselves.” This weekend, we got a real-life demonstration of what happens when people believe in denying freedom to others.

Episcopal Bishop John-David Schofield of San believes that gay people should be banned from performing sermons, confirmations and rites. He recently led his diocese away from the national church on this issue, to ally with an Anglican church based in Buenos Aires.

The Episcopal Church responded by, appropriately, banning him from performing sermons, confirmations and rites.

I wish you would stand up for freedom, Governor, by identifying the Republicans who want to block lesbian and gay couples from marriage, and proclaim that their marriages are annulled. It would be no more arbitrary than annulling my marriage, which you did in 2004, and certainly teach a better lesson about commitment than banning committed relationships.

As Lincoln realized, the consequence of “doing unto others” is to be “done unto.” Won’t you see to it that justice is done?

Yours,

ATTACHMENT: Public Officials who have endorsed a ban on my marriage

Public Officials to be Banned from Marriage

State Senators
Senator Dick Ackerman (R-Tustin) – http://www.senate.ca.gov/Ackerman
Senator Sam Aanestad (R-Redding) - http://www.senate.ca.gov/Aanestad
Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield ) - http://www.senate.ca.gov/Ashburn
Senator James Battin, Jr. (R-La Quinta) - http://www.senate.ca.gov/Battin
Senator John Campbell (R-Irvine) - http://www.senate.ca.gov/Campbell
Senator Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks) - http://www.senate.ca.gov/Cox
Senator Jeff Denham (R-Merced) - http://www.senate.ca.gov/Denham
Senator Bob Dutton (R-San Bernadino) - http://www.senate.ca.gov/Dutton
Senator Dennis Hollingsworth (R- El Cajon) - http://www.senate.ca.gov/Hollingsworth
Senator Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) - http://www.senate.ca.gov/Maldonado
Senator Bob Margett (R-Arcadia) - http://www.senate.ca.gov/Margett
Senator Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) - http://www.senate.ca.gov/McClintock
Senator Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) - http://www.senate.ca.gov/Morrow
Senator Charles Poochigian (R-Fresno) - http://www.senate.ca.gov/Poochigian
Senator George Runner (R-Antelope Valley) - http://www.senate.ca.gov/Runner
Senator Mark Wyland (R-Carlsbad) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Wyland

Assembly Members
Assemblyman Greg Aghzarian (R-Stockton) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Aghazarian
Assemblyman John Benoit (R-Palm Desert) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Benoit
Assemblyman Russ Bogh (R-Yucaipa) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Bogh
Assemblyman Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Cogdill
Assemblyman Chuck Devore (R-Irvine) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/DeVore
Assemblyman Bill Emmerson (R-Redlands) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Emmerson
Assemblyman Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Harman
Assemblyman Guy Houston (R-San Ramon) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Houston
Assemblyman Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Huff
Assemblyman Rick Keene (R-Chico) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Keene
Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa (R-Biggs) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/LaMalfa
Assemblyman Jay LaSuer (R-LaMesa) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/LaSuer
Assemblyman Bill Maze (R-Visalia) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Maze
Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy (R-Monrovia) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Mountjoy
Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi (R-Lodi) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Nakanishi
Assemblyman Roger Niello (R-Sacramento) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Niello
Assemblyman George Plescia (R-San Diego) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Plescia
Assemblywoman Sharon Runner (R-Lancaster) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Runner
Assemblywoman Audra Strickland (R-Camarillo) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Strickland
Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Costa Mesa) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Tran
Assemblyman Michael Villines (R-Clovis) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Villines
Assemblywoman Mimi Walters (R-Laguna Niguel) - http://www.assembly.ca.gov/Walters

Today’s letter - Saving marriage for the Spears

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

Today’s headlines announced that 26-year-old Britney Spears is getting married for the third time, and that her 16-year-old sister Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant – out of wedlock – with a guy she met at Church.

The response from the Campaign for California Families is an amped-up effort to “save marriage” from lesbian and gay couples.

Now I don’t know about you, Governor, but it seems to me that we should be “saving marriage” for committed couples like me and my partner of ten-and-a-half years, instead of people like the Spears who seem to have a problem with commitment.

I want my kids to have positive role models. I think society would want to promote that. Instead, your office is resonating the message that marriage is for something other than committed couples.

I wish you would use your position of power and leadership to explain to the people of California that all committed couples should have the freedom to marry – and perhaps we might be able to really and truly “save marriage.”

Yours,

Today’s letter - Pete Knight: in his own words

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

When you vetoed the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act (and my freedom to marry), you cited “Proposition 22” as last word on same-sex marriage in California. I think it is important to look at what those words are – and what words you support – when you support Proposition 22.

Proposition 22’s author Pete Knight said:

“The man-woman family is the best possible family unit… The woman brings certain characteristics, and the man brings certain characteristics. Homosexuals who want to marry are asking the state to legalize and promote a family unit that is different from the best.”

“They talk about equal rights, but there is no right to marriage. … There is no civil right that says that you should be allowed to marry a man and a man.”

“As far as domestic partners are concerned, I think I can accept, and I would be willing to support, domestic partners with limited rights, limited state’s rights. …they should have the ability to designate whoever they want to come in and visit with them in a hospital. Those kinds of things are kind of basic, and they don’t even need to register as domestic partners to have that happen. There are legal documents, there are legal means, by which they can accomplish that. They can have a will and leave whatever they have to whomever they want. So that’s not something that’s being denied them. They can have those kinds of things.”

“I think, sooner or later, the government is going to have to step in and say, now wait a minute. You can’t have a marriage here and not be accepted here. We had a patchwork one time with slavery, and we had to correct it.”

“The state would have to teach that this is an acceptable family unit. The state should not be sponsoring or promoting a second-class unit.”

This guy sure was good. He was able to convince an entire state of Americans to turn against their principles and say that not all of us are created equal. His success forces me to take time I could be spending with my kids in order to beg for every little scrap that “first-class” units like Britney Spears can get in under an hour. He has managed to redefine marriage as a weapon, and aimed it straight at me.

I wish you, Governor, would do more to thwart this man’s injustices, and less to propagate them.

Yours,

Today’s letter - Uruguay has more freedom than America

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

I used to get excited when a new country announced recognition of same-sex couples. For example, Uruguay is about to provide equivalent social security, pension, inheritance, and parenting rights to both heterosexual and homosexual couples through a “civil union” structure. I used to see it as a tipping point in the way people saw – and treated – their lesbian and gay brethren.

But with Civil Unions or marriage available throughout almost forty countries representing every continent except Antarctica, I’m starting to instead see it as a countdown until the United States is the last country on earth that fails to allow her lesbian and gay citizens to fully participate in the economy and community.

How can we say America is the “land of the free” when people in Uruguay get social security, pension, inheritance, and parenting rights, while my partner of ten years and I become legal strangers as soon as we step out of our home state? Uruguay!!!!!!

It is truly a global embarrassment that you, Governor, tolerate the negative and divisive bullying tactics that the Campaign for Children and Families (CCF) and other opponents of equality are using to carve out and marginalize an entire group of people based on who they happen to love.

Change begins at home. The next year will be pivotal in the fight between the opponents of equality and fair-minded Californians. I need you to do more than stay silent: please support the freedom to marry so the United States might someday join the world community in treating all of her citizens with dignity and respect.

Yours,

Today’s letter - Orson Welles causes panic

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

Today is the 69th Anniversary of Orson Welles’ radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. His convincing broadcast caused panic in the real world. I want to tell you how the seven pro-LGBT bills that you signed are bringing on the real end of our world, an apocalypse stalled only by your veto of AB 43.

Mona Passignano, a spokesperson for Focus on the Family Action, said that the seven bills will “have a devastating impact on churches and Christian families in the state for years to come.”

Unlocking the door to the Four Horsemen’s stable is SB 777 that calls for public school administrators and teachers to work towards protecting students from harassment and bullying.

The Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports that SB 777 will require “all California public schools to positively portray homosexuality to children as young as kindergarten.”

Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), explains that “textbooks could be forbidden from portraying marriage as only between a man and a woman; textbooks could be required to present homosexual historical figures; and sex-specific Homecoming King and Queen contests could be forced to change. … This means children as young as five years old will be mentally molested in school classrooms.”

“The legislation might even mandate unisex restrooms.”

“Now that SB 777 is law,” says Meredith Turney, legislative liaison for Capitol Resource Institute, “schools will in fact become indoctrination centers for sexual experimentation.”

But SB 777 is not alone. LifeSiteNews.com explains that AB 14 “prohibits state funding for any program that does not support transsexuality, bisexuality, or homosexuality. This means state-funded social services operated by churches and other houses of faith, which provide essential services to children and adults, could dry up.”

Thank God that you vetoed AB 43, the bill that would have brought us the freedom to marry, and did your part to preserve the hatred and intolerance that is apparently the only thing between us and the end of the world.

Yours,

Today’s letter - God is punishing us for our intolerance

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

I was wondering, Governor, if you think there is a link between our recent wildfire disasters and homosexuality.

Before you roll your eyes, the leaders of the Republican Party’s theological community - Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and James Dobson – all insist that natural disasters are caused by God’s anger at our tolerance of homosexuals.

A quick survey of California shows that we have not had a major earthquake since Domestic Partnerships were introduced. What has happened nationally?

In 1997, the Florida Legislature introduced the nation’s first Defense of Marriage Act. Shortly thereafter, Pat Robertson warned the city of Orlando, Florida, that a gay celebration the city hosted “will bring about terrorist bombs, it’ll bring earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor.” What happened? Nine major hurricanes have devastated Florida including Charley, Ivan, Francis, Jeanne and Wilma, destroying the notoriously anti-gay Coral Ridge Ministries but leaving Orlando untouched.

In 2004, Louisiana passed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and recognition of any “identical or substantially similar” legal status. The same year, Massachusetts started legal marriages. The fallout? Hurricane Katrina destroyed most of Louisiana except for New Orleans’ gay village, while Boston won the World Series.

By 2006, twenty-seven of the fifty United States had constitutionally banned same-sex marriage, while Canada had been performing marriages for a year. The result? This year the Canadian dollar passed the US dollar for the first time in 30 years. Oh, and zero Canadian hurricanes, earthquakes, meteors or debilitating wildfires.

My conclusion from these data is that if you attracted the wrath of God and caused
the wildfires, it was not by signing seven pro-LGBT bills, but by vetoing AB 43, the bill that would have extended the freedom of choice God gave us to all California families.

Yours,

Today’s letter - Focus on the Family lies

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

Focus on the Family lied, and you swallowed the Kool Aide. Citizenlink.com, the activation network of Focus on the Family, repeatedly refers to Proposition 22 as a “Constitutional Amendment,” such as in this article by their Associate Editor, Jennifer Mesko:

One of the bills, AB 43, is another attempt to force same-sex “marriage” onto the residents of California. In 2000, 62 percent of voters passed a constitutional amendment that states, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

That you signed seven LGBT-positive bills this session has poor Dr. Dobson in a thither, which is nice, but all those calls you got in support of your veto were based on misinformation - that Proposition 22 was a Constitutional Amendment.

What changes this from “shame on him” to “shame on you” is that your office did nothing to correct that misinformation, choosing to use it instead as a smoke-screen for vetoing AB 43 and my relationship.

Not everybody knows the gritty details of how Proposition 22 and AB 43 pass in the dark, but you do. You could have explained that Prop 22 covers 308.5 of the Family Code dealing with foreign marriages while AB 43 restores Sections 300 and 302 to their pre-1977 traditional language, “marriage is between two persons.” But you choose to ride the Focus on the Family Wrongmobile instead.

Depriving me and my family from making the commitment of marriage is wrong, but using convenient misinformation to deny basic freedom is perhaps worse.

Yours truly,

Today’s letter - the tide is turning

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

I’m just a simple guy, but even I can see that the tide is turning against the opponents of equality.

A Time magazine article published today contains interesting polling data: 90% of non-Christians call Christians too anti-homosexual but a shocking 80% of Christians think that they themselves are being too anti-homosexual.

In 2007, opponents of equality couldn’t get enough support to stop marriages in Massachusetts, ban Domestic Partnerships in Oregon or even put a new (constitutionally-effective) version of “Proposition 22″ on the ballot in California.

The legislature saw this coming two years ago when they sent the country’s first pro-gay-marriage bill to your desk. Then, they got reelected and passed another bill to end the special exclusion of same-sex couples from the security of marriage.

It must say something that the last anti-gay law was seven years ago, while two pro-gay bills have come to your desk in the past two years. The tide is turning, Governor. Do you want to be on the side supporting love, or the side supporting hate? Please sign AB 43 and support the freedom to marry.

Sincerely,

Today’s letter - Domestic Partnerships are bad for Heterosexuals too

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

I’ve written to you in the past about AB 43 which would allow same-sex couples to choose between marriage and Domestic Partnership, but today I want to write to you about a reciprocal bill - SB 11 - which would give all opposite-sex couples the option to choose Domestic Partnership instead of marriage.

Heterosexuals couples over 62 years old can already choose Domestic Partnership instead of marriage but SB 11 would remove the age restriction and let anybody who can get married get Domestic Partnered instead.

I actually agree with Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families (CCF) and an infamous Opponent of Equality, who said “Awarding marriage rights to people who shack up but refuse to get married is completely ridiculous. Why get married if you can get all the legal rights and benefits of marriage without being committed? This bad bill severely weakens the institution of marriage and will motivate unwed parents to remain uncommitted.”

SB 11 is a reciprocal bill to AB 43, and the reciprocal truth applies: why ban people who are “shacking up” from the commitment of marriage? Why would you motivate (or force) unwed parents to remain uncommitted? Just as SB 11 weakens marriage, AB 43 strengthens it by allowing committed couples to commit to each other.

My California Domestic Partner and I have been “shacked up” and “uncommitted” for way too long. I wish you would let us access the safety and security of marriage just like everybody else: please sign AB 43.

Sincerely,

If you can take away marriage…

The subtitle of this blog is “If you can take away marriage, you can take away anything.”

What that means is that I don’t think that the Opponents of Equality are really targeting the Gays. I believe that they are a coalition of groups that have their eyes set at terminating loftier prizes: abortion, affirmative action, immigrants, Arabs, Jews, public schools, evolution - the list goes on.

Remember that these are the same people who argued for, and subsequently lost, the ability to prevent different races from sharing the same schools and to keep women from voting. I think that they are actually amazed that they are finally winning on an issue, and just a bit embarrassed that it is not from an ethical or moral high ground, but just really good PR.

The fact is that gay marriage is just a pawn in this game. Randy Thomason doesn’t give a toss about the gays, but the power and money he gets by terrorizing them will let him graduate to other sinister criminalizations. I don’t get the feeling that Governor Schwartzenegger is morally opposed to this bill - but the fact that he has the power to veto it gives him the ability to get other things.

Think of all the good stuff we could do with the money and energy that has been spent trying to make a group of people into second-class citizens. If we can take away marriage discrimination, we can take away all discrimination. Who would oppose that?