Civil rights anyone?

I am feeling really angry right now. I am not sure why I am having such a strong reaction. So there is now a ban on gay marriage in California. Apparently, a lot of people are mad at mormons because they were the biggest financial supporters who used propaganda to get people to vote for it. (fyi, propaganda just means using persuasive words, images, etc to get people to think the way that you do) Apparently many other churches had people donate money, but mormons donated upwards of 20 million.

Fast forward to today, and you have a bunch of upset people. Mormons, because they will tell you that it is NOT authorized by the church to tell you who or what to vote for, but will say that you need to think about what we (being the church) believe in, pray about it, and vote that way. Well, obviously it went much further than that for Proposition 8.

I am saddened about a video that I saw that shows some mormon youth at the temple in LA where people are protesting get into it with the protesters. The protesters had put up posters and written things on the temple gates. The youth tore them down, and were yelling at people for doing that to their church. They won't show what pursues because it is fighting and using bad language, but essentially, 3 protesters went to the hospital and the boys are going to be investigated for a hate crime.

So, how would a gay person like to have a bunch of signs saying that they are wrong on their house? How would they feel if people came over and yelled about them being bigots or whatever. Uh....they probably would get pretty damn angry. So I can totally see how these young boys got VERY upset. It is the TEMPLE for heavens sake!!! Should the people who vandalized the temple get investigated for a hate crime because they are basing it on religion and were fighting, or are hate crimes just reserved for the gays? I know that for most people it is just a building (the temple) but to mormon people it is a sacred building, and doing that means much more to them that an average building. Of course, on the other hand, I don't think that a lot of mormons are open to understanding how a person who isn't allowed to get married to the person they love is feeling.

I hate the whole situation. I think that anybody should be able to get married to whomever they want. Why the hell should I care? I mean, yeah, I got pretty pissed when my sister Gen decided to marry Scott. Should it be legally mandated that since I didn't agree with the marriage choice that they aren't allowed to get married? That would be RIDICULOUS. (I like you now scott....)

And I think what makes me the most angry is probably my family. I hate the whole thing about how if you are gay that it up to you, but marriage is between a man and a woman. UH.....whatever. Civil rights means that everybody has the same rights as the other. All other groups are allowed to get married, whether you are fat, religious, disabled, stupid, white, black, asian, etc. Gay people aren't in that mix. It bothers me that people can't see how it isn't fair.

It reminds me of my stepdads mom. She 'likes' black people (so she says) and says that she really like those cute girls that work in the restaurant where she lives. They are great. In the same breath though, she will say that a black man shouldn't be president because he isn't smart enough. It just sucks that people think like that. It is her opinion, but it is really annoying. And when it come to gay rights, people can't even see how they are doing the same thing. Saying, well that is fine for them, it is their choice, BUT they can't get married like me.

What I don't understand is why so many mormons gave money for the proposition. I thought that we were taught that being on earth is your chance to make decisions. FREE WILL. Taking away our free will was what SATAN wanted. So doesn't that mean that if you are mormon and forcing your beliefs onto other people that you are being like satan? I think that it is a right to be involved in politics no matter what your belief, but this is a civil rights matter. This involved not letting other people choose for themselves. It is a little different, in my mind, than supporting health care for everyone or not.

I wrote a paper about gay marriage in college 10 years ago. Interesting that the people who were the strongest opponents of gay marriage either turned up to be gay, or were trying to 'save the sanctitiy of marriage' but had been married several times.

So now all you mormon people that are out there, reading my blog (I know you are out there because my whole family is) why the hell do you care? And, in fact, why the hell does the church care? I mean, mormons have a pretty damn high divorce rate, just as high as the rest of the country. I think that 20 million would be much better spent in more easily obtained couples counseling, required counseling before marriage, and many other things to deal with your own mess. Hell, every mormon person I know who is married has been divorced at least once. So, please tell me, I would love to hear you tell me about the sanctity of marriage. Please.