Equal Rights take a step closer to reality tonight

At 5:01pm Pacific time California becomes the second state in the Union to allow same sex marriages. I have great hopes for this as Mass hasn't exploded in the fiery wrath of a vengeful god nor have opposite sex couples in Mass have had their marriages cheapened or invalidated because others can get married. I'm proud of Mass for doing this first and I think it's about time CA follows.

Many cities are keeping their offices open late tonight to issue licenses, there will be a lot of June weddings this year. Apparently even if the proposed amendment against this is put on the ballot this fall, and IF it gets passed, the marriages performed between now and then are still valid as it's sanctioned by the state this time instead of a city.

My greatest hope is that, in time, rational people will see that this not only doesn't cause any harm but doesn't 'diminish' their own marriages (an argument that makes no sense to me at all). If we can show those who have sense that this isn't the horror that the fanatics have painted it to be I think acceptance and eventually true equality actually has a chance.

It is disappointing, as someone on tv just pointed out, that Obama isn't for gay marriage. To be brutally honest any politician that was couldn't get elected President so it's something I'm willing to forgive, at least for now. When both parties' candidates say the same thing it becomes a moot point at this point in an election.

Hopefully, maybe even by the time Obama runs for reelection, it won't be the sure loss that it is now.

One of the 'talking heads' on tv today said something else that really hit home to me today, about Roe v Wade and McCain's desire to get it overturned and that effect on women's votes. She said that since Wade was passed in 73 most people who are of child bearing age never experienced a world where abortion was illegal. We can't comprehend that being a reality so it's not a huge deal for us, as a whole.

I think that is absolutely correct, I can't comprehend a world where women are forced to go to butchers to get the abortions they're going to get, and where doctors are made criminals for helping desperate women. A world where the woman has all of the responsibility of an unintended pregnancy, basically making women second class citizens again. Would this mean Plan B would be illegal? What about endotopic pregnancies? There is a proposal in Denver to declare that life begins at conception, and those balls of cells have the same rights as any other person. Now that is an extreme by far but it's frightening that I might not be able to take a 'morning after pill' if I feel it's needed, no matter what the situation.

I hope the fact that McCain wants to nominate Supreme Court Justices who would overturn Roe and the cases that have been decided since is brought to the forefront in this race. I want those who were entranced with the Maverik McCain in 2000 (and I was one of them) to see that this man, McCain in 2008, as the man he's become. He is courting the bat shit insane side of the Republican Party and has changed to a man who would ban the right for a woman to make a decision about her body and declare that someone else can dictate what is right and wrong when it comes to my morality.

I pray the excitement about Obama translates into votes, which it doesn't always do, and the apathy of the far right over McCain, for he does piss them off by being rational about climate change and immigration, leads them to stay home and it's a huge wave across the country.

It's going to take a lot to overturn the abuses of the past administration, and it's going to take people who won't just take advantage of those abuses and entrench them even further. McCain declared that giving human beings habeas corpus was the wrong decision. Couple this with his desire to overturn Roe, thinks that some people should be able to get married and others shouldn't, and I see no other choice. Even if I wasn't completely charmed by Obama I would never vote for someone who is against basic human rights.