Good news, bad news

[meitachi]

I said it on FB but I think it bears repeating:

I woke up this morning and was disappointed in my state. Thankfully, this afternoon, I am not disappointed in my president.

OBAMA: [A]t a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.

As for NC, I know some of my defensiveness stems from the fact that it's mine, my home, and I love it so a lot of you fuckers can just shut up but the comments I've seen from people dismissing it as a backwater redneck hick state make me furious because not only is that a tremendous and unfair generalization, it's one that erases the existence of everyone in NC who has been fighting against Amendment 1, including those who would be affected by the amendment. It's more people than you think and they (we) are just as much part of NC as the bigots, as the (disappointingly) overwhelming majority who went out to vote this amendment to the state constitution. There is still a long way to go, but don't dismiss NC so easily because then you are dismissing the fight and those who are fighting it.

Anyway. Here's the Change.org petition against Amendment 1.

Hockey feelings another time.

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Comments

[acornmama.livejournal.com]

Never stop fighting. It is always worth it.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

♥ Sometimes I read the news and am just overwhelmed with negativity. It's nice to have some good news/optimism once in a while.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

It's true, there was a LOT of misinformation going on and a lot of people who voted who maybe didn't realize the far-reaching consequences of the language of the amendment. Ugh, I still get so mad reading the defenders/supporters' remarks in news articles and stuff though. asldkghf I was half-hoping we'd be a swing state again this year but honestly speaking we're looking pretty red. :/ Unless we can get those college kids out voting in droves again...

[impertinence.livejournal.com]

yeah, I get being angry and disappointed but I saw some stuff that turned my stomach about how everyone in/from NC is a backwater hick or w/e. that completely erases people who, like you said, fought against the amendment, but also the ACTUAL QUEER PEOPLE who live in NC.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

Yup, absolutely. I want to know who these people making these dismissive comments about NC as a lost cause/another shitty place they'll never visit think they're being so self-righteous for. Who are you fighting for, then?

[meritjubet.livejournal.com]

Sigh. It is an unfair generalisation but one that people do like to throw around. I'm kind of surprised that Obama did say that, be interesting how that will influence the campaign. Republicans will go wild with joy, not that they wouldn't have implied that he was a gay loving president in any case... so better to have said it?

[meiface.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it'll be interesting, since everyone sort of knew his stance beforehand but he's never come out and stated it explicitly because of catering to the potential centrist/right vote - but honestly I think the center has already moved so right and the right has gotten so batshit that there's just no more middle ground. He might as well come out - and cater at the same time to the ones who might vote him back into office.

...and I didn't mean for this comment to end up so cynical, wow. Politics, though. Either way, I'm glad he's finally said this.

[meritjubet.livejournal.com]

No I agree. Plus there have been liberals who critique Obama for not being left enough and failing the left (I've read some that said they would never vote for Obama again) this might assuage them. A nice counterbalance to the gay adviser that recently resigned from Romney's campaign too (though I'm still unsure exactly what they were doing there considering how right feels about gay people even ones that vote Republican).

[meiface.livejournal.com]

Yep. It's possible he dropped the announcement today because Romney's gone on record a few times today in response to NC passing Amendment 1 reaffirming his opposition to legalizing same-sex marriage and even civil unions that would give all the same rights. It was probably a good time for Obama to make this announcement and hopefully win back the disillusioned leftist college kids who helped campaign for him and voted him into office in 2008. He needs that crowd out in the booths this November. :/ As evidenced somewhat by their lack of turnout in NC...

[meritjubet.livejournal.com]

Off the back of that it is good timing. The lower down you go the less people turn out for elections I've found. So there is that hope? Still at least the Republicans fucked themselves a bit during the first part of the year. Hilarious to see Santorum flip flop on the issue of Romney, of course I imagine he wouldn't see it that way.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

I really half-hoped NC would be a swing state again but it's looking pretty red at the moment - unless Amendment 1 passing is the kick in the pants a lot of disillusioned liberals need to realize that even if Obama's not perfect, he's vastly preferable to the GOP at this point and that means they do need to go out and vote, not just sit at home and talk about how both parties have disappointed us (which to be fair they have but only one of them is absolutely unapologetic about not respecting human dignity and rights, be it on issues of gay marriage or immigration or contraception).

[meritjubet.livejournal.com]

Oh all political parties are going to disappoint for a number and a range of reasons. But analysing it through a narrow viewpoint is going to make you think that Obama didn't do much, which ignores the political and economic context. Politics! basically.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

Ah, sorry! Basically they've joined about 30 other states in the US in amending their state constitution to explicitly define marriage as between a man and a woman. So...that's shitty, not just to people seeking same-sex marriage but also any sort of civil union between couples of any sex. And same-sex marriage was already illegal in NC so this amendment was really just an extra asshole move to elevate it from not just state statute but to state constitution. Ugh. People defending this just make me so furious alskjfdslk.

Politics in the US is basically more and more of a clusterfuck of WTF, it's true.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

Yep, I guess it's a product of our federalist system - a central national government but each state with its own constitution and government and the ability to make its own laws, so long as they don't conflict w/ the US Constitution/federal laws, which obviously have supremacy.

Does...Canada not do that? I'll be honest, I know even less about Canadian politics than you do US, lol.

[nyw.livejournal.com]

My roommate texted me - she's from Hickory - and said she was disappointed in all the religious rednecks in NC who probably went out to the polls for Amendment One. But she also said she's just signed a petition to get it repealed, so you know what? You're totally right. The number of people on campus who were petitioning against it, the number of institutions who were fighting for and against - all that goes unsaid and unreported. And the fight is still on.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

I take as some form of encouragement the fact that the fight's made enough progress that what used to be a mainstream unquestioned assumption is now feeling defensive enough to retaliate with these kinds of laws.

The tide is changing!