Same-sex Marriage Ruling
A YPM member writes an emotional editorial for us on Gay Marriage, and the recent California ruling… Currently Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, South Africa and Spain give complete legal recognition of same-sex marriages. In the US, MA and CA are the only two states that recognize same-sex marriage.
A note written by Justin, a 28-year-old YPM member:
Hi guys,
Last Thursday the CA Supreme Court ruled that gays & lesbians can marry. I can’t tell you how emotional this ruling is for me, it actually makes me feel like a legitimate, normal, first-class citizen in a way that I haven’t before. If you identify as heterosexual you may be surprised to hear me say that, but one of the biggest privileges of being heterosexual is that you don’t have to think about your sexual orientation all the time.
This ruling is being threatened though. There will likely be an initiative on the November ballot to overturn it, which would nullify the court’s decision. Marriage would only be between a man and a woman.
People not personally involved in this issue often feel like everything is fine - like everything is going in the right direction, towards acceptance. But the fact is that everything is not really fine - there’s an enormous amount of discrimination out there that is going to creep in to our constitution this November if we don’t stop it.
This issue is bigger than marriage to me, it’s about accepting gay and lesbian people as we accept any human being, regardless of their race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.
Please speak to your friends about this, or forward this note along. I’ll send more out as things get more heated I’m sure, but I wanted to let you know how important this is to me. If you’d like to learn more or donate, you can visit the HRC website at http://www.hrc.org/10444.htm.
Thank you,
Justin