We need to reframe gay marriage laws by eventually getting the Mutual Respect Act amendment

[zulchzulu]

I was watching the fantastic original documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088275/) and it kept hitting me what we should retool for to make sure that gay marriage laws are finally accepted into society.

In my opinion, once any legislation has the term "marriage" in it, it sends out the usual evangelical thugs and their homophobic admirers to fund and fight against it. As is done in good advertising, good branding is essential for success... Of course, all the rights of marriage as well as the legal benefits of domestic partnerships and civil unions need to be built into this legislation. It needs to be simpler and less "excitable".

What struck me about some of the speeches and quotes Harvey Milk made in the documentary was a common thread of the words "mutual respect". He knew there would always be people against his personal sexual lifestyle and just asked that they at least know he would always be who he was and that they just need to show some respect.

Not only would a constitutional amendment called the Mutual Respect Act be exactly what it's all about and what is needed, but those two main words could be referenced to Harvey Milk, a man who essentially is a martyr for his cause.

So can we start petitioning Barack Obama and everyone else towards legislation called the Mutual Respect Act? I'm considering spending time to make it so.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. Equal Rights Amendment would be better. nt

[zulchzulu]

4. I thought about that as well... n/t

[w4rma]

2. Yup. That is exactly correct. (nt)

[Hippo_Tron]

3. I don't think this would work and here is why

I wrote a thread about the Prop 8 propaganda that sank like an anchor because it didn't scapegoat any particular group of people.
The commercials were blatantly designed to instill fear into people about legalizing gay marriage that goes straight for the live and let live argument.

It's clear that the majority of Californians had no problem with gay marriage so long as they did not have to hear about it or see it in any way whatsoever. But for some strange reason they have a problem with it if it means that society accepts homosexuality. And while there is no direct correlation between The King and King being read to school-children and gay marriage being legalized, as the propaganda falsely claims, there is a correlation between the legalization of gay marriage and the acceptance of homosexuality in society.

While the right wingers are hated filled bigots they are right and we are wrong when we say that gay marriage has no effect on them. It does have an effect of them. It affects them because it becomes harder for them to pass on their bigotry to their children when society no longer accepts that bigotry. They won't say that outright but they have made it abundantly clear that, that is what they are truly afraid of.

And unfortunately it's not just the religious fanatics too. That might be enough to ban gay marriage in the deep south but not in California. There are enough secular people that are uncomfortable with the idea of their children living in a world where homosexuality is accepted as natural that Prop 8 passed in one of the most progressive states in the country.

Harvey Milk was right that people would always be against homosexuality but the problem is that the mutual respect thing can't work. People won't respect what they fear and they will fear what they don't understand. The key is making people understand that acceptance of homosexuality is not something that they should fear.

[zulchzulu]

5. I agree with many of your points, but still think the mutual respect angle would be good

Part of getting rid of the "fear" is to say that people being gay will exist no matter how hard those that try to "stop" it will try. It finally gets down to respecting others... fear is almost impossible to get rid of due to how one generation passes their hate on to their spawn like cookie recipes.

Part of gaining mutual respect is to show that fearing something like being gay is pointless.