Proposition 8: The Musical

A star-studded cast answer the tough questions regarding Proposition 8, which was passed in California during this year’s US elections.

Proposition 8 reads as follows: ”Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

This sentence not only disallows future marriages for gay and lesbian couples, but essentially annuls those marriages which took place in the months before Prop 8 was passed.

If you don’t already know about the proposition, some great posts about the topic and its controversies can be found at the following links: 

• The Mormon (Church of Latter Day Saints) involvement in getting the proposition passed
• The legal basis for overturning the proposition in the suit being filed 
• Fact vs. Fiction from the No on 8 campaign, addressing the lies told to voters from the ‘Yes on 8′ campaign
• A summary of the claim that African Americans and other minorities were to blame for Prop 8 passing

To see what happened after Prop 8 passed, see this post on Feministing. Basically the LGBTQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer) community mobilised and unified in protests across the nation. I have a feeling that Prop 8 might have actually strengthened determination for equal rights rather than hampered it.

On Christianity and Penguins

Ah the penguin. Man’s best friend. Well, not really, but we all love a good penguin. It waddles, it flaps, it does that cute thing where it shuffles the egg under that random flap of skin, they fly and holiday in South America. Yes, there’s nothing quite like a good penguin. But alas, there are some out there who want to ruin the innocence of our beloved penguins, and use them for a political agenda. I refer of course to none other than the Christian right. 

In 2006, the film March of the Penguins was released. It was a great documentary about penguins and their migration patterns in relation to chick-rearing and mating behaviour. Anybody would love the film for its cinematography and interesting content, if not for the fact that the awesome voice of Morgan Freeman narrating. Nevertheless, some members of the Christian right decided a point needed to be made, that penguins are not just cute, but moral. Yes, penguins are apparently the epitome of morality.

However, a recent story came to my attention which I think might change the minds of some Christians who spoke too soon and didn’t do their research before they made these claims. In fact, it is my hypothesis that those same Christians who claimed penguins = morality, must now admit that homosexuality = morality. If not, I fear they risk appearing like hypocrites. Which isn’t usually an issue for them, but hopefully will be when they discover this penguiny truth.