Milking It on the Streets

Corresponding to Harvey Milk Day, marriage neutering advocates went door to door in California to try to get people who understand that marriage unites the sexes to vote their way instead. Since a lot of people vote based on emotions, this tactic may indeed have an effect. The advocates and news media are trying to present this as "the people who are voting in a bigoted way based on what their church told them will change their vote once they meet a nice same-sex couple." I can't speak for everyone, but I didn't vote for Proposition 8 (the California Marriage Amendment, now in effect) based on anything my church communicated. I didn't vote for it based on hatred of anyone (I don't hate people for their sexual orientation), or because I don't know nice same-sex couples (I know many), or because I am grossed out by homosexual behavior (hand holding, hugging, and kissing, doesn't gross me out). I voted for Prop 8 because I believe the state has an interest in marriage that it doesn't have with other relationships, and because I think it is not the place of a court to interfere.

Ellyn Pak has the Orange County Register version of the story.

A few dozen gay-rights activists hoped to put a personal face on the issue of same-sex marriage Sunday, taking their cause to the streets throughout the county.

One can be for "gay rights" and against be neutering of marriage. They should not be presented as synonymous. I can be correct in referring to them as anti-constitutional activists, but does that really tell the whole story?

The men and women canvassed neighborhoods in Santa Ana, Fullerton and Mission Viejo as part of Harvey Milk Day, a tribute to San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the state. He served 11 months in office before he and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated in 1978 by a former supervisor.

The murder of Milk had more to do with workplace violence than anything else.

The activists – along with others who spent the weekend rallying and canvassing neighborhoods from San Francisco to Los Angeles – focused on cities where in 2008 a majority of residents voted in favor of Proposition 8, which defined marriage as being between a man and woman.

So marriage was never defined that way before Proposition 8? How about, "which amended the state constitution to reinstate the traditional definition of marriage in California law."

"The reason I do this is to create a society of inclusion, not of hate and segregation," said Elizabeth Aversa, a field manager with Equality California, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy organization that sponsored the event along with other groups.

But creating "marriages" that exclude one of the sexes is segregation and noninclusive.

[Much more after the jump.]

Aversa, a Yorba Linda native and lesbian who began volunteering in summer 2008, said such events give volunteers a chance to talk to people face-to-face about their struggles and feelings about the marriage ban.

There is no marriage ban. And feelings don't matter when it comes to law. That I feel negatively towards a law in no way obligates someone else to vote against it.

Yumi Hirata, 25, of Tustin, a coach and volunteer at Equality California, and Cate Gary, 29, of Dana Point, went door-to-door on Grant Street in Santa Ana to talk to residents.

Reaction varied somewhat in the Santa Ana neighborhood, but no one's mind was changed, the activists said. In some cases, residents said religious beliefs and the position that marriage should be between a man and a woman prohibited them from supporting same-sex marriage.

And one need not even believe in God, the supernatural, or anything tied to "religion", nor disapprove of homosexual behavior, to see that the state has an interest in licensing the uniting of a bride and groom in marriage that it doesn't have with any other kind of voluntary personal association.

In response to Hirata disclosing she is a lesbian, the woman responded, "Oh, I'm sorry," recalled Hirata.

What's wrong with that? Haven’t we been told - by LGBTQQUA??? activists - that gay people and lesbian people have tough lives full of oppression, ostracization, and abuse? Of course people are going to feel sorry for them. But also, this woman may have greatly enjoyed her heterosexuality, and wishes others could have that enjoyment, too. For example, she's probably talked with straight people who have never married and also told them she was sorry.

Nhim also questioned how a gay couple could produce a child together.

No answer is given in the article.

Here's the Los Angeles Times story from Ruben Vives. You know the language in this story is going to be slanted.

Targeting districts that voted heavily in favor banning same-sex marriage, gay-rights activists took to the streets throughout Los Angeles County on Saturday and made personal appeals for legalization.

As we've said many times before, it wasn't a ban.

Raymond Moya, 38, and Byron Moya, 32, an Inland Empire couple who married before the ban, went door-to-door talking to registered voters. They brought along their twin 3-year-old daughters.

Where is the mother or mothers of those girls? We know these two men did not make those girls themselves, nor did any other pairing of two men.

The canvassing event, which occurred throughout the state, was sponsored by Equality California and dozens of state and local advocacy groups and elected officials.

Gee, those marriage neutering advocates sure sound powerless.

In Los Angeles County, the effort began Saturday with dozens of volunteers and advocates gathering at the East Los Angeles Service Center, where they heard supportive speeches from Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, state Assemblyman Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate), and Dustin Lance Black, an activist and screenwriter who won an Academy Award for the movie " Milk."

It's nice to know where they stand.

Last year Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law the Harvey Milk Day bill, written by state Sen. Mark Leno (D- San Francisco), who is gay.

The bill designates May 22 as a day of significance in honor of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. He would have been 80 years old Saturday.

Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely he would have lived anywhere near that long had he not been murdered.

There were some comments after the story worth noting.

"ceoco1" wrote at 11:22 PM May 22, 2010:

I'm sorry, I just don't Get this! A man is made different than a women! Its like trying to put a square peg in a round hole! But i`m just a 800 pound Gorilla in the room!

"tod503" responded at 7:13 PM May 23, 2010:

You're trying to make everyone the same and we're not.

Right – men and women are different and not all kinds relationships are equal. And yet your side, tod503, is calling for three different kinds of relationships to be called and treated the same under the law under the call of "equality".

"RamonYabut" wrote at 9:23 AM May 23, 2010:

Typical lie from the gay community. I and many others have said we would support you having every single legal right of a married couple as long as you make up your own term for your union.

Which is exactly what California's Domestic Partnerships are. And again, I make a distinction between "the gay community" and marriage neutering activists.

Again, the bottom line is that from a societal view, heterosexual behavior is objectively and obviously different than homosexual behavior – regardless of morality. The pairing of two men or two women is different from the pairing of a bride and a groom. Why shouldn't our laws be allowed to reflect this reality? Marriage neutering advocates don't want us to have a word that describes the only kind of relationship that forms an inclusive microcosm of society, can naturally produce children and provide those children with both a mother and father who are legally and socially obligated to each other and the children.