The Anatomy of Oppression

I have been thinking a lot lately about Proposition 8 in California, mainly because it has been splashed all over the headlines, but also because there have been many documentary films on the subject playing on Demand. It has become a hot-button issue, particularly because you would think a progressive, democratic-voting state like California, home to what many consider a LGBT flagship city to be a little more empathetic to the plight of gay marriage (or at least not care enough to vote against it.) It seems strange, but sort of expected that "marriage advocacy groups" from other states would even care what California does with their laws and their people, but it seems that they had gotten their point across. Now with the possibility of overturning the law for good looming ahead, things could get even stickier. I can't see the groups that advocated Prop 8 in the first place just giving in. And if the thousands of abhorrent comments after the Yahoo! News articles on the subject are any indicator, it's going to be a long road to forge.

I guess I am not sure why public opinion is so unfavorable to the thought of gay marriage. Four other states have already passed it without too much fanfare. The fact that Prop 8 did pass in California (even though it should have easily been defeated) leads me to believe there was some other driving force behind the bill. In the movie "8: The Mormon Proposition" it reports that the LDS Church spent around 22 million dollars to get Prop 8 passed in California, mostly from donations from their parishioners. 22 million dollars. Let that sink in a little. Over the course of just under a year, they managed to raise 22 million dollars, all in the name of disenfranchisement. This wasn't 22 million dollars to build a new school, feed starving peoples of third world countries, start community outreach programs for at risk youths, or money to build a homeless shelter, this was purely money to take a fundamental constitutional right away from tens of thousands of people. To me, that's sick. 22 million dollars that could have went to helping the impoverished went to preventing the happiness of those whom they've never even met. To be honest, I think Jesus would have been disappointed.

Besides the money issue, there is that whole "hate" thing. By now allowing gay marriage in all 50 states, not just California it breeds a hatred and contempt for the LGBT community. It implies that that "Yes we put up with your sinful ways because this is America and we have all that freedom crap, blah, blah, blah, but we, deep down, don't agree with what you're doing and think there should be limits to your excess." To me that's the nicest message it sends, I think to others who already want to see being gay as "wrong" or a "blasphemous choice" then I think it tells that it is okay to hate this entire group of people because they are different and that difference may just rub off on you! Sometimes when I am feeling low about the state of affairs in the U.S., I like to think about one of Freud's defense mechanisms. A little gem called Reaction Formation. "In psychoanalytic theory, reaction formation is a defensive process in which anxiety-producing or unacceptable emotions and impulses are mastered by exaggeration (hypertrophy) of the directly opposing tendency." So basically when someone, has a subconscious emotional response to a stimuli that the person (due to religion or upbringing) or society may deem unacceptable, they tend to go overboard in thinking the exact opposite. For example, if a person, let's say a right wing Republican, often speaks out against a certain cause, again and again, lets say gay marriage, some, let's say one with half a brain, might say that he is using reaction formation as a defense mechanism to cover-up his latent homosexual tendencies, let's say Senator Larry Craig. I thought it was just me who seemed to notice the disproportionate number of closeted gay Republicans in the U.S. congress until they finally made a documentary on it; "Outrage." The stupid part is, I don't think people would care as much if they were just honest from jump street. It's the lying and the hypocrisy that makes me angry. Who cares if they are LGBT, if they do a good job as our representative? It's the same with gays in the military. Why do I care what someone, who is doing an extremely dangerous job to protect all of us whiny Americans back home, (that I would personally never even consider) does in their free time? I don't care if they like to corn hole endangered species in their spare time, as long as that means I don't have to go and fight. (Besides the whole, it's okay to kill civilians as part of my job, but having sex with a man, now that's disgusting!)

Another interesting point I would like to offer is the minority groups that are against gay marriage. I find this incredibly hard to swallow. African Americans, Native Americans, Mexicans, immigrants, and women were all disenfranchised at one point or another in our American history and still are to varying degrees today. Even though we have made important (albeit seemingly obvious) strides to correct these oppressive forces, like Emancipation, Suffrage, Women's Liberation and the Civil Rights Movement, it seems like we are going 2 steps back sometimes. It's like none of the monumental occasions ever even happened; ancient history. We should feel some brother/sisterhood with the LGBT movement, for without people like them that stood up for our rights not so long ago, I would not have the right to vote and would still have to take orders from my husband in order to be a "good little wife." African American marriages weren't recognized by the U.S. at one time too, slaves didn't need to marry, they were commodities like cattle or tobacco. But deep down we knew this repugnant view wasn't right, there is no way any human being should be treated like this, so unforgivably mistreated. At another high point in American history, interracial marriage wasn't allowed. We look back on that now and see how ridiculous that was. So I find it hard to see why any minority group wouldn't side with allowing gay marriage. They have been there, stood in that exact same spot before them, but yet why can't they see? Are they honestly that naive to think that somehow their struggle doesn't parallel their own? Are the too steeped in blind faith and literal interpretations of select parts of the Bible? Are they just being duped by the age-old white male power structure that even after all these years still seems to rule the country? Or is it something more visceral? Some sort of subconscious need to oppress another group, as they have been oppressed. An involuntary need to feel like they are on the inside looking out now, a twisted Stockholm Syndrome, where the oppressed emulates the oppressor. It is unnerving to me to think that old stodgy white males still have a certain power over us, they control the largest corporations, the banks, the government, not that much seems to have changed. Every now and again they throw us a little scrap to keep us just complacent enough not to up rise.

Marriage between any 2 human beings is a fundamental right. A popular vote can't take away a fundamental right. I think we should start an initiative that says all people with tattoos are not allowed to marry because they have desecrated the body that God gave them and are no longer worthy of the sacrament of marriage. Once that passes with all the money we throw at it we can start making all kinds of judgemental, arbitrary laws. Prop 8 should have been overturned no matter what, even if the judge is gay, that doesn't mean Prop 8 was ever constitutional. When a Republican appointed by George W. Bush to be Solicitor General says Proposition 8 is unconstitutional, that should make people take notice. Here is a man not letting his emotional feelings about gay marriage, whatever they may be, or his political party's, get in the way of the law. Being gay is not wrong, or sinful, or anything really. It shouldn't define a person, but with so much degradation and hate, it is doing just that. Being gay is not a sickness, a contagious disease, or a choice. Gay people are actually born that way. Many scientific studies have been done on this hypothesis and there have been some conclusive findings. It comes down to the levels of prenatal hormones in the womb during brain development in the fetus. They found statistically significant hormone level differences in those of gay males versus straight males. The AMA, APA and AASW all find that sexual orientation is not a treatable medical condition, it is just an individual variation, just like blue eyes or brown hair. Gay and lesbian sex has been going on for thousands of years. I laugh every time some high-brow asshole says he is going to a symposium. It does occur in the animal kingdom as well. One notable species; the bonobos often have male on male and female on female sex, as well as free for all orgies to pass the time (mainly in captivity.) So it is not unnatural or even a new concept, but gay marriage isn't about sex. It's about love. Why can't 2 people that love each other make an official, state-recognized commitment? Why do they have to settle for those bullshit "civil unions?" Those are just ludicrous. You can't take our word "marriage," but we'll throw you a bone to get you off our backs, here, have a civil union. People sure do have some audacity to go around telling others what they can and can't do, especially those same people who believe in a "smaller government."

Religion has a big part to play in all of this. For as much good as religion, like helping the needy, comforting the weary, or giving some kind of spiritual guidance to reformed inmates, they do equally as much or more detriment to society in the long run. The teachings of Jesus were very good in theory, just like Karl Marx and Communism, but in practice, it loses something in translation. People can too easily convolute and twist the lessons around to fit their own indulgent and often nefarious purposes. Religions tend to harbor archaic and often dangerous attitudes about "outsiders," even though that's exactly the kind of thing that Jesus preached against and was to a certain degree. I tend not to trust huge corporations whose only interest is to bilk money out of me. I sometimes like to think about the people at the top of these huge corporate heaps. Do they actually believe the shit they are peddling or do they just sit in their mahogany lined offices and laugh?
I hope that soon, the LGBT community will enjoy all the rights that are given to all other Americans. And if the politicians up in Washington stopped politicking for just a second, maybe they could follow their moral compass, and do what they know in their hearts and by law is right.