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August 12, 2000
I'm disgusted with my home state.
I've been spending a lot of time reading this site lately. I tried to follow the civil unions thing, since it was happening in my home state and all. Honestly, I didn't think it would be that big of an issue. Granted, most Vermonters -- the ones who have lived there for generations -- are pretty set in their ways. But still, Vermont always struck me as a very live-and-let-live state. People tended to mind their own business, at the very least.
So I didn't expect much of an outcry over the civil unios law. I haven't been to Vermont since May (and I was in no mood to sightsee last time I was there), so I haven't seen any of the Take Back Vermont signs. (Have you, Mom?) I'm leery of climbing too high onto my soapbox, here, because I have the attention span of a gnat, and I haven't followed the story as closely as I'd like. But when I read something like this:
"Please have kids the normal way
I am sick and tired of the homosexuals calling us "straight pride" people names. This has now become a hateful and harassing situation for us who are proud of our "straight pride" feelings. If the gays have a right to call us all kinds of names, they have no right to cry foul when we our freedom of speech about them. Vote them out in November.
Homosexuals can't have it both ways.
Also, gays admit they want to promote a gay agenda. They admit they want to go into schools and it's one big fat cover to recruit young members that can be used for homosexuality. From all I hear and see, the real plans of the civil union was to force gay ideas on us. Gays don't want us to force our ideas on them and we don't try to teach our children that sex between men or two women is normal.
If god wanted homosexuality there would have been one sex and no population on earth. Why do you suppose only women can give birth? Not by having sex with a woman! No child should even be placed in a homosexual home. If people want kids, they should have them the normal way."
... my hackles go right up. It seems a lot of people have completely missed the point of the law. It is not legalizing gay marriage. It seems to on the surface, but it really doesn't. Patrick summed it up quite well -- it really doesn't seem to do much at all. It does, however, force people to treat committed gay couples with some degree of respect, and of compassion. Apparently, there are more people in Vermont who oppose that sort of decency than I thought. The fear seems to be that Vermont will be handed over to debauchery, when nothing could be further from the truth. What in God's name is so wrong with acknowledging a committed couple? Especially now, when the divorce rate is so damn high, and people are wringing their hands over the decline of morals in society? Okay, I'm becoming a bit of a blowhard here. My point is, while this law may not do much, the spirit of it is good. Or at least it seems that way to me -- and the bottom line is, what harm does it do anyone else? What are the people with the Take Back Vermont signs so afraid of? And take Vermont back from who?
Posted by Mary Ellen at August 12, 2000 04:18 PM