It was hard to not see but the pain in his eyes was too great.
I usually make people feel better, or at least smile when they feel blue. It's just how it is. Making people feel good and move forward is really the most important thing. The rest, heals itself eventually after. Yet, his eyes were different this time around. They didn't smile. They didn't have that usual zest. They looked tired and weary. In fact, they looked remote and far away, almost distant. Something was different about him and I didn't know what. I asked how the newlyweds were doing and I saw an unfamiliar smile. It had anguish in it. Something was wrong. Then I realized how much the election results had affected him, them, this newly wed couple. Proposition 8 had passed after the law had decided otherwise backed by out of state churches dubious motives. He and his husband felt rejected, dejected, slapped across the face. He felt shunned, chastised, cast aside by other human being who felt they could tell him, tell "them", they could not have normal lives and marry, as people from the same sex who love each can. This is now off limit. He felt he was sharing his country with people who didn't wish him well, with people who didn't want him to be happy and live a normal life. He was being told he could not share marriage with his true love, that same way Virginia and I are privileged to have.
Exactly why? A church from another state reads a "holly" book written by the hand of a man who supposedly interprets God's will. How preposterous! Human beings who cannot even quiet the chatter in their minds claiming to know the all mighty, all encompassing source of all things, they call God. In a day and age where more than half of "normal" marriages end up in divorce, where many married man are caught pants down in public bathrooms and parks, some of these good-conscious people feel two people of the same can not marry. In a day and age where more than 30% of men in the US admitted to having cheated, it's hard to understand the hypocrisy. If God is omnipotent, omni-powerful and omniscient, what is it not? Surely God loves all creatures, equally. What does one creature feel the right to tell another creature they can be happy or not? When you stop to think some of these faithful, fear-riddled folks get drunk on a Saturday nights, go home and watch dirty movies and wake up in church next morning. Oh, the abomination! The hypocrisy! And to think our country is the number economic factor behind child and regular pornography, what hypocrisy.
Whatever happened to the holly passage of he who is pure, cast the first stone? Look deeply into your minds and hearts first. Know thyself. Marriage is a sacrament only reserved to those lucky enough to be part of the genetic pool that favor the other? Did we jump back more than 200 years? Didn't Hitler having similar genetic theories. It's a slippery slope. There is a reason we separated religion from government, they never mixed well and were co-authors of some of the biggest horrors worldwide.
I am deeply spiritual. My quest is to find my way home, my way directly to the source, God, Light, Source, whatever you would like to call it, The All, I want to experience it directly, not through a book and even less through another man. I listen to wise men, their speeches and writings but ultimately, the only thing that will do is that Ultimate Source, That Which Is Underlying All. The All. It humbles me enough to know I cannot tell anyone what to do. The only underlying principle is to not hurt anyone, love your neighbor and do good, not force your ideals onto others. That is fear ridden attitude. This time, my fellow citizens have hurt part of the population by rejecting them. Remember what your good book says: "Love thy neighbor!" A far cry these church fear mongers are from their ideals they try to force onto others. They cannot even do it themselves and when they try, they are miserable. They know not what they do.
What lingers in my mind to this day was the pain in his eyes. It was slow, sad, intense and oozed a far and distant pain. It was all there for me to witness, someone who had never experienced this kind of rejection. I understood it intellectually but I had never seen the pain. This time around, I felt how cruel and heartless some ill-advised people are. I saw how easily manipulated these "good folks" can be when their only purpose in life should be the two most noble causes: Know thyself and find God for thyself, not through someone else's eyes. What miserable creature abandons their right to finding God directly much as a dead leaf is taken by the wind? I have never understood what it must be to feel cast aside, now I saw in my friend's eyes.
The funny thing about these two is that they truly care for each other. They are good people, a good couple. They work hard, do good things for society, don't cheat, don't do drugs, are reasonable people and are happy together. They wish no harm on anyone. One is a lawyer who combats injustices in the work environment. How ironic to think "those" people who have fought injustices have had some of the people they help, turn against them, unknowingly. I wish more heterosexual couples could be like them. When you see too many guys treating girls as sex objects and worse yet, too many girls using their bodies to get male acceptance, it makes me sorry for them. A gay couple can teach you a lot.
I am pained to see that look in his eyes. It truly hurts me to see my friend in disarray. It just isn't fair in this time and age to tell people how they can marry, who and not whoever they love. Genetic and sexual discrimination has no place in a civilized society. We've seen the consequences all too often.
Many people and experts claim the vote was pushed and funded from a church that allows polygamy. In this day and age I can find no reason for such a thing. Nor could I find any reason God would want only men to marry more than one wife. If same sex should be banned, then marrying more than one person should also be. Why not allow women to marry as many men as they want? And since children seems to be the crux of the ill-thought off rhetoric, then couples like us, Virginia and I shouldn't be married because neither of us wanted children. In a world where millions starve, we should take care of the children who need our help. Stop converting people. Teach them how to fish. I, along other people, just find it ironic and insincere that people who feel it is alright for a man to take many wives, but not the other way around, can tell others who they can and can't marry.
Women have finally won the right again to chose what is right for their body in regards to abortion, for the 4th time. Hopefully, these extreme religious fundamentalists will stop meddling with the law and manipulate minds of our country. It was one step in the right direction, now we need to continue and allow for everyone's happiness. This country was built on freedom of speech and freedom of religion. When religious sect interfere with laws, they have taken that right away and desecrated our founding concept… freedom of choice, freedom of religion. We need to work together, not separated. The evils of Machiavelist
theories have harmed us, I fear almost beyond repairs. While we devote
our attentions on ridiculous outdated notions, the rest of the world is
taking us over. Ah, but at least the gays can't marry!
But I never got to this point.