In the Shadow of Proposition 8, Upheld

It's with great sadness that I deviate from talking about art to talk about inequality in the pursuit of happiness in California. This morning, the state's Supreme Court has ruled in favour of banning same-sex marriages, supporting Proposition 8 which was on this past year's November election. I can't even imagine how it's possible we would put something like this up for popular vote, let alone how this ruling is even remotely Constitutional*.

*Allow me to amend this statement due to a technicality, brought to my attention in several other places on the internet. This ruling may be "Constitutional" on the grounds that it was a ruling which dictates whether or not the state of California may change its constitution through the popular vote. Very well, fine. I stand by my case that the inherent problem was it landed on the ballot in the first place. So we can change it back? Does this mean we'll exist in an unending cycling stasis of acceptance/unacceptance for the indeterminate future? Does that mean we should go back and forth on issues of racial rights and abortion -- women suffering the right and the lack of right to choose and minorities voting every other national election? YES this is an emotional issue. How can it not be? You're lying to yourself if you think voters were voting on a technicality.

Since I don't have the time to post from work in a coherent manner (although it appears that I'm trying), I'm directing you to a very eloquent conversation about what it is to be "Other" in a society which excludes those/us/we who are different. Susanna Bluhm on her blog Getting to Know You Better is living up to the name, only now we're getting to know her as well as ourselves a little better too.

Truthfully, the beauty of this post is in the storytelling. I'm reminded how discrimination is easily accessible by anyone, towards anyone, intentional or not; whether it's reversed, ingrained, instigated, or reactionary. Sometimes it's not even seen on the surface - gender, class, race, and nationality come to mind in regards to discrimination of a more subtle nature. How would I know? My story is one of being an outwardly straight Caucasian female; but privately of partial Native American descent and not-necessarily-as-straight as I seem. I don't outwardly claim either in a loud voice to strangers, but perhaps it's time I did. Would it change what people thought of me? Does it matter? Nothing can ever be described only by what you see. We must look deeper.

If we could all stand over two steps to experience the ways in which we're affected by discrimination, even if we think we're not, the world might be a different place. I encourage you to step over yourself to join the conversation and tell your story. Tell it to someone close or to a stranger, tell it to someone even if you think they don't care. The important thing is to tell it, because we can no longer keep quiet.

The only way to combat this thing is to demonstrate how we're all in it together, that our world is one swathed in gradients of beautiful multilayered grey (and red and orange and blue and everything but only black or white).

The Great State of California, Putting Your Hard-Earned Tax Dollars to Work (just not for you)