John Aravosis, on his America Blog, has an inspired and impassioned rant regarding a remarkably stupid article by LA Times columnist Steve López.
You see, poor Margie Christoffersen, till recently a manager at the crappo faux-Mexican Hollywood hangout El Coyote, has had her life turned upside-down by those mean people who dared to point out that she donated to Yes on Proposition 8, as she was ordered to do by her church elders. You see, Margie's a Mormon and, even though she "loves teh Gayz", the thought that she might be voting to take away their civil rights means nothing in front of her duty to follow whatever the LDS Church tells her to do.
And López thinks we should feel sorry for the pathetic, simpering idiot. I'm going to side with Aravosis on this one.
FUCK MARGIE CHRISTOFFERSEN.
People want to vote their religious convictions? Fine. People want to donate money to causes following their religious convictions as well? Hey, knock yourself out. It's your money. And it becomes public record. And actions have consequences.
People want to use public records to shine light on people's bigotry and hypocrisy? More power to them. People want to vote with their pocketbooks to reward supporters and punish those who would hurt them? It's a free country, isn't it?
If someone is willing to go on the record as supporting a cause that hurts people they claim to "love"-- people who have faithfully given their money and business to the venture the person works for--, he or she has NO RIGHT to whine about being held up for their hatred by those he or she has harmed.
And make no bones about it: Prop H8 has HARMED people. As Aravosis so aptly notes, would López be so quick to rush to this Christoffersen woman's defense if she had donated to David Duke? Or been outed as a member of the KKK or Aryan Nation? But here, she's only hurting homosexuals. Steve López apparently thinks that it's just FINE to harm gays and lesbians. And her entire defense is "My religion and my God made me do it", and that makes her immune from criticism.
And I call bullshit on all of that. Steve López can kiss my ass. So can that crocodile tear-shedding Margie Christoffersen.
My civil rights were taken away. MY marriage is in legal limbo. My husband and I are through with being second-class citizens thanks to the hatred of organized religions seeping into civil law. Fuck organized religions. Fuck their brainless followers.
The LGBTQ community deserves equal rights. We WANT equal rights. We DEMAND equal rights. RIGHT. FUCKING. NOW.
UPDATE
Wow, my first recommended diary! What a thrill. Righteous anger DOES have a place on the Left...!
Some think I was too hard on organized religion. Some think we are being too forward in wanting equal rights. Others want us to just shut up about marriage equality since THEY don't think they need it. Too damn bad. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more! I'd shout it out the window, but my damn office window is sealed shut (well, we work in finance-- this would probably be a bad time to have windows that we could jump out of...).
I'm angry. I've stopped caring whose feathers I ruffle. I've got a husband and a marriage to protect! If we are not all equal, none of us is equal. Never forget that.