Please talk to folks about the "defense of marriage" amendments

[peacebird]

I was at the gym, chatting with my work out partner. I mentioned how Virginia would have a DOMA proposition on the ballot in November... She had absolutely NO IDEA what a defense of marriage proposal was, or what it could mean!

This is an intelligent woman but this issue was completely foreign to her. She was horrified when I mentioned that it would codify discrimination - and she was quite sheepish about not being aware it was even an issue.

She has since talked to lots of other people to pass on the word. I think perhaps we should not assume other people are aware of these issues just because we are (my apologies if I offend anyone with that statement because perhaps you have already been actively spreading the word, I had not - aside from my bumper stickers)

[noahmijo]

1. You know why we're even talking about this at all?

because the neo-cons are looking like absolute fools over their failed policies concerning everything war, to the economy, EVERYTHING and they need something to feed their stupid christian followers to keep them in line with all the other sheep.

This is their ace so far to keep the superstitious idiots on the leash. The fact that this whole bullshit "defend marriage" crap is making the rounds is further proof of just how STUPID and IGNORANT and BIGOTED this country really is.

I am really beginning to wonder if this nation is worth saving when I'm reminded of shit like this. Maybe it's because I'm stuck in Red Arizona until I can afford to move the fuck out I don't know if those of you who live in blue states don't have as much right wing crap thrown in your faces on a daily basis but everyday I'm respecting this nation's so called principles and their christian sponsors less and less.

[Ms. Toad]

2. I find it helpful to refer to it as

the marriage discrimination amendment (or statute).

The label given to it by its framers is inaccurate (both factually and legally).

From a factual standpoint, refusing to recognize or create certain marriages does nothing to defend any other marriage (whatever your definition of marriage is).

From a legal standpoint, it is designed (among other things) to destroy the rights associated with certain legally binding marriages (same gender) but not with others (mixed gender). When my spouse and I are in the country in which my marriage was legally created we are entitled to the full range of rights and responsibilities that were created solely by virtue of our marriage, as would be any mixed gender couple married in that country. When we cross the border into our home state (which has passed both a marriage discrimination amendment and a statue) those rights and responsibilities are temporarily stripped away. In contrast, the mixed gender couple married in the same country crossing the border into my home state retains the full range of marital rights and responsibilities. This is marriage discrimination, pure and simple. Discrimination by the state against a select group of marriages.

AND - thank you for speaking up and encouraging others to do so! :bounce:

[peacebird]

4. I think I prefer your description. It IS discrimination - pure and simple

At the local fair there was a booth for the republicans - and they had DOMA posters all around, so I walked up and asked the black man volunteering at the booth about it.

How he could support it?

I remember Jim Crow signs from growing up in the south. I remember KKK signs. I remember when interracial marriage was verboten. Hell - I remember when interFaith marriage was going to be the end of the world.

So I asked him if he believed in equal rights, he did. So how could he support discrimination based on sexual identity? We do not choose the color of our skin any more than we choose our sexual orientation.

He had no answer.

[MissMarple]

3. They have to appear in defense of SOMETHING...even if it doesn't need it.

They couldn't defend us against Bin Ladin, they are making a muck up of it in Afghanistan, and Iraq...well that went famously south and is sliding into a civil and regional war, and they are disastrously inept at any attempts at diplomacy and foreign policy. The poor guys couldn't defend a soccer goal in a game against 10 year old girls.

[LostinVA]

5. I know a ten-year-old female soccer player who would

have a fit if I showed her this post! She and her team are at an "elite" level, and those girls can play. OMG.

[MissMarple]

6. I should have added....

No disrespect to 10 year old soccer girls, actually soccer girls of any age. But the visual image is hilarious, IMHO. Not only do those guys not know how to play fairly, they are way too disorganized to mount any form of defense. They would collapse in heaps of frustrated agony, and Rummy would deny, deny, deny.