Last Tuesday Americans made Barack Obama their first black President and Californians voted to amend the State constitution to prohibit gay marriage.
Proposition 8 adds this language to the constitution;
Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.
Lesbian rock diva, Melissa Etheridge, a Californian who presumably voted against Proposition 8, says that because Prop 8 passed she will no longer pay California taxes:
Okay. So Prop 8 passed. Alright, I get it. 51% of you think that I am a second class citizen. Alright then. So my wife, uh I mean, roommate? Girlfriend? Special lady friend? You are gonna have to help me here because I am not sure what to call her now. Anyways, she and I are not allowed the same right under the state constitution as any other citizen. Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books.
She is, however, happy that Barack Obama was democratically elected on Tuesday.
I tell myself to take a breath, okay take another one, one of the “thems” made it to the top. Obama has been elected president. This crazy fearful insanity will end soon. This great state and this great country of ours will finally come to the understanding that there is no “them”. We are one. We are united. What you do to someone else you do to yourself. That “judge not, lest ye yourself be judged” are truthful words and not Christian rhetoric.
Apparently, Ms. Etheridge thinks our democracy only works when it produces a result of which she approves. When it doesn’t, the electorate is “crazy”, “fearful” and “insane.”
Consider these questions:
- Should individuals who voted for John McCain be entitled to a federal tax discount on the grounds that their will wasn’t done on election day?
- Polygamy is illegal. Are polygamists entitled to refrain from paying taxes on the grounds that they are not full citizens?
- Does the ban on gay marriage constitute “legislation of morality” as Ms. Etheridge contends or is it merely legislation about the traditional definition of marriage?
- Should taxpayers be allowed to refrain from paying taxes in protest of programs their tax dollars are being used to fund (i.e. a pacifist doesn’t want his tax dollars being used to fund the military, a Christian doesn’t want her funds being used to fund the National Endowment of the Arts, etc.)?
- Is it hypocritical to applaud “democracy” when it gives you what you want and denigrate it when it doesn’t?
Let me know what you think.
Full Disclosure: Florida passed a similar amendment last Tuesday. I voted against it.
(I got the idea for this blog post from Paul Caron of TaxProf Blog.)
8 responses so far ↓
1 Justin McCoy // Nov 18, 2008 at 4:33 pm
http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5359 Fantastic perpective on tolerence.
2 Brett Fairbourn // Nov 18, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Yes, call her your girlfriend, or your partner, or your civil partner if that’s the case. A wife has a husband, like a mother has a child.
3 My New Year’s Resolutions Based on Lessons Learned in 2008 // Dec 31, 2008 at 12:34 pm
[...] See Melissa Etheridge and Gay Marriage [...]
4 Suzanne Doyl // Apr 23, 2009 at 9:58 pm
No, it’s not hypocritical to approve of some things being put to a majority vote and others not. Civil rights should not. The majority can be a bully to minorities, as we’ve seen a number of times in our history. Constitutions, courts and legislatures are some protection against that but unfortunately, California’s constitution is unusually easy to change by simple majority vote.
5 Suzanne Doyle // Apr 23, 2009 at 9:58 pm
oops.. typo’d on my own last name!
6 Peter // Apr 24, 2009 at 8:01 am
Suzanne,
Thanks for visiting the site.
What some minorities can’t get done through the legislative process they try to bludgeon the majority with through the judicial process.
It’s undemocratic and gives far too much power to ideologicially driven judges.
I don’t think anyone is bullying anyone else by saying that the insitution of marriage – which was formed, developed and has been sustained for thousands of years for the simple and obvious reason that the human species is comprised of two genders – should retain it’s traditional definition.
But having said that, I know why people who favor gay marriage try to paint those who are opposed to it as wicked, evil, mean-spirited and bigotted.
Because you can make people do things they wouldn’t normally do if they feel the consequences of not doing them are great.
Thus, the gay lobby hopes that people will eventually stop voicing their opposition to same sex marriage for fear of being labeled and ostracized.
It is, of course, a form of censorship and thought control.
For merely the latest example of this I refer you to the recent Miss USA pageant fiasco.
Miss California said she opposed same sex marriage and was called a bittch and a c-word on national TV for it.
That, to me, is much more intolerant than merely supporting the continuation of a two thousand year old tradition.
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[...] Rocker Melissa Etheridge: “I Won’t Pay California Taxes” [...]
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