This is a re-post of a diary I did under my own handle (plf515) at Terry's request.
Let me make it simple: Anyone in favor of Proposition 8 is a bigot.
MW online definition
: a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices ; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance
I don't care if God told you to vote that way, or your brother in law told you. I don't care if you have a gay kid who you love but still think 8 is good. If you're for 8, you're a bigot
I hate bigots.
I'm one of 'those people'
Gay? Nope. I'm not gay. In terms of sexual orientation, I'm as plain vanilla as you get (a heterosexual male married to a heterosexual female; and all plain vanilla habits within that. Oh, and monogamous, not only within marriage but serially monogamous before that).
No. Not those people ... those people. Them over there.
I'm Jewish. We've been those people quite frequently in the last few thousand years. And I'm learning disabled, we've been those people, too. Not that long ago, I'd have been put in an institution. Oh, and I'm an atheist. Atheists are those people.
In fact, we are all those people.
So, what about proposition 8? Well, it takes away the right of those people to marry. That makes it bigotry. Because once you say that those people don't have that right, it's a short step to saying those people shouldn't have that right. Police protection? For those people? Right to vote? For those people? We wouldn't want the police protecting Jews, would we? We shouldn't let learning disabled people vote, should we? And, well, since we've decided that they don't deserve that, well, we sure wouldn't want Black people having freedom, would we? I mean God wanted them to be slaves, right?
Are there degrees of hate, degrees of bigotry? Of course. There're the people who want to kill 'those people', there are the people who want 'those people' to 'go somewhere', there are the people who think 'those people' should be quiet, there are the people who think 'those people' should be satisfied. But it's all of a piece. It's all bigotry. It's all hate.
And I am against it all.
Rabidly.
I'm one of those people.
What can you do?
Say no on 8, say no to hate, donate. For more things to do, see Gavin Newsom's diary from earlier today