Congratulations…
August 5th, 2010
…to Dylan Meconis on the recent release of her gorgeous Family Man collection. (Buy here).
…to Larry Marder on becoming the new president of the CBLDF. (Donate here).
…to California on at least temporarily overturning Prop 8. (Marry here).
March 3, 2021
**…to California on at least temporarily overturning Prop 8. (Marry here).**
Hmmm…so the votes of the people of California are tossed aside by an activist (and, shall we say, *sexually-biased*) judge, and that’s something to celebrate?
It’s become very clear that elected and non-elected officials are not listening to the majority of the people in this country. And come November, they’ll pay the price.
Because after all, if you can’t assail the reasoning in his decision, you can always attack the man. A judge who was considered too conservative for Reagan to get confirmed, at one point, is now an activist and biased judge.
When people vote for something unconstitutional, their votes don’t get to trump the Constitution. That’s why we have a judiciary and a Constitution in the first place.
The United States is not a democracy. Never has been, and God willing it never will be.
Democracy is mob rule. The will of the majority supersedes the rights of the minority.
We are a Constitutional Republic, designed specifically to protect the rights of the minority.
So yes, congratulations to Vaughn Walker for upholding the principles this country was founded on in the face of massive opposition from millions of ignorant Californians.
If were just a judge tossing aside a law cause he didn’t like it, then it would be a CRIME. This judge looked at the law and saw that it was an illegal, unconstitutional law in the first place. You simply cannot have any law that only applies to any subset of the population. It would be like making it law that blue eyed people could only marry green eyed people.
Oh, and hey, congratulations to Dylan and Larry, too. FAMILY MAN is a gorgeous book and I look forward to reading it, and the CBLDF couldn’t be better off than to have Larry at its heart.
Thanks Kurt! Your copy is in the mail!
(And I, for one, am quite happy to share space with Prop 8 being overturned.)
My copy’s already arrived, and it’s a great-looking book!
Just have too much other stuff to read…
Since most of your post has already been discussed just one question: Who do you think would be an unbiased judge? A heterosexual? Bisexual? Asexual?
That’s easy to answer: a hermaphroditic asexual judge. No?
You’re so right! I can’t America outlawed slavery! even when everyone was in favour of it!
Wait.. what were we talking about again?
Just want to point out the Bible,which condemns homosexuality, actually allows slavery.So Abraham Lincoln? He’s in hell or he will be when”The Majority” finish turning us from a Constitutional Republic into a Constitutional Theocracy
Jesus is mowing my lawn while his disciples are sitting down, waiting.
You have less of a clue than you ought to.
Why should the majority of the populace be involved? If your beloved gets down on one knee, that should be good enough. In keeping with tradition he will probably approach your father and say “Eagle, I would like to ask for your daughter’s hand in marriage. Can I have your blessing?”
When Eagle gets a tear in his eye and yes, it’s time to make the plans and rent a hall. It’s not time to go door to door until 51% of the populace grants him their blessing.
That “activist judge” was appointed by GWB after his initial appointment–by Reagan–was blocked by Pelosi.
Whoops.
When those Californian voters tried to make a subclass out of their neighbors, then, yes, overturning their vote is most definitely something to celebrate .
Eagle’s Daughter – because everything that the majority votes for or believes in is how it should be! Right? Like slavery! Yeah! Or segregation! Hallelujah!! Seriously though, at one time the majority believed you (I’m assuming you’re a woman) shouldn’t vote or have basic rights.
It’s the rule of law. You can’t just bypass the Constitution of the State of Califiornia like that just because your pastor wants to.
The majority is not guaranteed to be right on an issue. Remember, the majority were against equal rights back in the day. Ask the majority in Mississippi a few decades ago whether black people were inferior to whites or not.
Sometimes legislation has to overrule the “tyranny of the majority.” Heck, that’s why Congress has two chambers. In the House, Congressional seats are given according to population. In the Senate, seats are given evenly across states. This way there’s a balance between sheer number (California and New York and Texas) and the less numerous folks in smaller states.
The very Constitution is a mandate against pure majority rule. That’s why we have it, so that all have equal protection under the law, not just those in power. Everyone has freedom of speech and freedom of religion, not just the majority. The Bill of Rights is there so that the minority has legal recourse against the majority.
America has never seen a time in which the majority was right about everything. There’s always a majority that’s perfectly fine with marginalizing some small group for one reason or another. And that’s why it’s good to have judges who can throw out faulty majority-tyranny laws like Prop 8 that fly in the face of the Constitution’s guarantee of equality.
It sounds like somebody here has never heard of “tyranny of the majority.”
Judges are not appointed to interpret the will of “the majority of people in this country.” (Changing laws according to the will of “the people” would be “activism.”) They are appointed for the sole purpose of interpreting existing laws and determining whether or not those laws are constitutional. (You know, that “created equal” clause, and everything?) Where would the Civil Rights movement have gone, if enacted according to your will-of-the-people rationale? Or any number of other historical phenomenon related to certain aspects of the population singled-out for unfair (or worse) treatment?
And characterizing the voting-out of an elected official as “paying the price,” is not only punitive, but threatening. (read: “Treat others as…”)
A charged and emotional issue, for sure, but one that requires tolerance, negotiation, and rational conversation among people treating each other as respected equals.
Dear Eagle’s Daughter,
I thought this was a great quote concerning the recent overturn of Prop 8. It was left on CNN by someone intelligent and progressive to help conservatives understand why they are wrong concerning this issue:
“Here’s the deal, coming from a heterosexual: Many of you ‘phobes are the product of thousands of years of severe training sanctioned by leaders who absolutely and desperately required maximum numbers of babies to build bigger armies. These leaders were so desperate they even wrote strict rules about it into the Bible. Times have changed, nuclear warfare nullifies large armies, and now too many babies are a liability on an over-crowded planet. So, sorry, your thousands of years of training have recently become completley out-dated, and it is time for you to give a nod of peaceful acknowledgment to your gay neighbors…”
I agree with Eagle’s daughter, and with this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSfFa44p96o
I’m with Bill. That YouTube guy has a very convincing argument.
Changed my mind.
In the interests of full disclosure, I tweeted an invitation to respond to Eagle’s Daughter since her comment came a few days after the post and I wasn’t sure anyone would see it.
Never expected more than one or two comments, but I guess, in hindsight, I should have expected this.
Sorry for unintentionally piling on to a lone poster like that.
Bah! I’ll only get married in California if Arnie presides over the wedding wearing shades and quoting his lines from ‘The Terminator’. “You may kiss the husband. Take off your clothes.”
I’d have just left it at “na-nanny-goo-goo, you’re wrong” and been done with the tea bagger. I love all you guys! You are awesome! I thank you and my friends thank you! 😀
In the immortal words of Charlie Brown, “Good Grief!”
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