Prop 8

One reason why I named this blog Insipidity, was to create and promote awareness of certain issues which I felt were not getting enough attention that it should rightfully deserve. Of course this blog is only as active as its user (namely, me) is, and I’ll take the blame for that. But while I’m here, I shall waste no time and get down to business.

First off, I’m extremely proud and overjoyed that Barack Obama came out tops in the final polls of the Presidential Election. Democracy prevailed, young people came out in throngs to fight for their future, and history was made in the form of the first Black President.

However, I wanted to bring to light a more sensitive issue, perhaps overshadowed by Obama’s victory but nonetheless just as important to many around the world – Prop 8.

Proposition 8 is a California State ballot proposition that would amend the state Constitution to restrict the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman. It would overturn a recent California Supreme Court decision that had recognized same-sex marriage in California as a fundamental right. The official ballot title language for Proposition 8 is “Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry.” The entirety of the text to be added to the constitution is: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

Here’s the ever vocal and passionate Keith Olbermann: Gay marriage is a question of love. Full text can be found here.

Up to this day, I still get uncomfortable stares followed by a forced smile when I inform people that I’m not homophobic, and yes it’s actually possible to not be homophobic but yet still be straight.

I present to them a short logical argument : When did you choose to become straight? Likewise, gay people did not choose to become gay, at any point in their lives. They were always gay, but perhaps their gay tendencies were suppressed by social norms and hence the “coming out of the closet” for many differs from person to person.

I’d also like to touch on Olbermann’s point on religion being anti-gay :

With your knowledge that life, with endless vigor, seems to tilt the playing field on which we all live, in favor of unhappiness and hate… this is what your heart tells you to do? You want to sanctify marriage? You want to honor your God and the universal love you believe he represents? Then Spread happiness—this tiny, symbolic, semantical grain of happiness—share it with all those who seek it. Quote me anything from your religious leader or book of choice telling you to stand against this. And then tell me how you can believe both that statement and another statement, another one which reads only “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Does it even make any sense that if there is a particular divine being, he created gays (well-knowing that they would be gays of course) and placed them among straight people, only to have straight people wreck and cause so much misery in the lives of homosexuals?

Here are some of my observations :

• Straight people and gay people were in actual fact meant to live peacefully together.
• The divine being made a mistake, gays should actually be straight.
• The situation is at it should be, and this is how the divine being planned it all along because he enjoys division and discrimination among his creations.

#2 is scary…. imagine what other mistakes might have occurred. Were straight people meant to be gays actually, and the human race should have become domesticated pets to our dogs and cats who could reproduce “normally” ?

#3 is probably a subtle hint that you probably chose the wrong divine being to worship, if there was one at all.
I do hope Prop 8 gets abolished and maybe, hopefully, a signal or some sort will be sent out to Singapore and its largely homophobic citizens. This is a plea for humanity, and let us recognise and embrace it.