So Much for Marriage Equality... in New York

I guess this just means there's one more reason Massachusetts is greater than NY. So far the score must be 41 to nothing.

Just look at it, we have guys like Jonathan Papelbon as our cultural icons:

Papelbon is young, fearless (just LOOK at his backpack!) and going to the All-Star game as the best closer in baseball so far this season.

NY? Try this on for size:

Not only is Randy Johnson the scarriest guy alive, but he kills birds - and probably all flying creatures too - with explosive, killer fastballs (which lately are erratic, explosive, killer fastballs). It wouldn't shock me if he eats children and finishes with a sub .500 record.

So baseball doesn't do it for any of you?

In Massachusetts, you get the best education in the world. Our state's children finished tops in the country in both English and Math on national exams. Our myriad colleges are among the best in the word, including Harvard and MIT, which are second to none. People call Boston the new Athens and it's not like we only have one big college town... and city (can anyone say Amherst and Worcester?)

New York? Okay, I'll give them Yale (because what is Connecticut if not a small burrough of NYC?)... but so what? That school is crazy and gives me little-boy, wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night, mommy-I-just-peed-my-pants nightmares. Hello, did any of you see that movie "Skull and Bones" or just witness a Presidential election where both of the candidates were members? Just thinking about all that Skull and Bones 'take-over-the-world' nonsense reality scares the bejeezes out of me.

Not convinced yet? Well, just take a look at the local medias. In Massachusetts, you get news like this:

Taking on Governor Mitt Romney and the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, 165 prominent business and civic leaders are publicly calling for the Legislature to reject a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The group, which includes leading bankers, healthcare executives, lawyers, and leaders of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, has purchased an ad in The Boston Globe that says the amendment would ``take away rights." It urges lawmakers to ``move on to other important issues like strengthening the economy, improving our schools, and protecting our neighborhoods."

The signers include Patriots owner Robert Kraft and his wife, Myra; real estate developer Robert Beal; Mayor Thomas M. Menino; chamber president Paul Guzzi, and more than 20 members of the chamber's board of directors; architect Graham Gund; author Robert B. Parker; venture capitalist Richard M. Burnes Jr.; Boston Foundation president Paul S. Grogan; and Stacey Lucchino, who is married to Red Sox chief executive Larry Lucchino.

In New York? Um... try this on for size:

In New York, the Court of Appeals said in a 4-2 decision that the state's marriage law is constitutional and clearly limits marriage to a union between a man and a woman.

The New York decision said lawmakers have a legitimate interest in protecting children by limiting marriage to heterosexual couples and that the law does not deny homosexual couples any "fundamental right" since same-sex marriages are not "deeply rooted in the nation's history and tradition."

File this under "ya gotta laugh to keep from crying" and remember that Massachusetts's hold on marriage equality is tenuous when its part of a Federal Government that tries to ban it every year. State by state, people are being kicked when they are down. With marriage laws on the books, mad evangelicals are demanding the end to their suffrage by having to watch gay people - hundreds of miles away in Massachusetts - getting married every now and then. Wow, I really feel bad for them! I mean, look at how we effect their lives and everything! Doom and gloom, doom and gloom...

In the end, those who seek to defend the indefensible and keep two consenting adults who love each other from becoming married aren't doing it for the children. If any of this was about the children, the NY Supreme Court would have allowed equality in marriage because thousands of children are forced to be bastards under state law. Gays and lesbians are already parents, they've helped raise over a million well-adjusted children in this country (literally!) Why not protect those children further by allowing them to have married parents?

No, the NY Supreme Court won't listen to reason. Instead, it seeks to view "fundamental rights" through the narrow "tradition"lens of this "nation's history." The same history that includes the most brutal form of slavery that ever existed and the repression of every single woman (up until very recently). You'd think we'd have learned our lesson about restricting rights?

Perhaps we should all just be pleased that only 5-10% of this country (and their 1-6 million children) are barred from enjoying the benefits of a civil marriage? I mean, isn't that a small sacrifice to pay for keeping up our nation's history and traditions?

I finally get why all those crazy nuts in the South love them their Confederate flags and General Lee magnates. They aren't doing it because they hate black people or even America - they're doing it because they're all such devout students of history. That's why they all believe in evolution!

I like to say this to myself everyday, but it bears repeating; thank goodness I live in Massachusetts.