Yeah my Portuguese (Brasil) is fucked up.
But listen to this strange tale I'm about to spin for you...I call it, "Reasons to just pack it in and move to France".
So today I was moseying about, actually about to write a totally different post, when I was introduced, via Twitter, to a story about Obama supposedly defending DOMA, despite promises to repeal it. Oh well, just another day in Obama throwing gays under a bus, I moved on (yes, moved on, that's just what I do now).
Until while scanning over Pharyngula (did you know it's the anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia case? Me neither) I found the story again and with the outrage over it this time I thought, "Wtf did Obama do now?"
Well... this what he done:
Joe and I have been trying since last night to get a copy of the government's brief just filed in this case. This is not the GLAD case that we've written about previously, it's another in California.
We just got the brief from reader Lavi Soloway. It's pretty despicable, and gratuitously homophobic. It reads as if it were written by one of George Bush's top political appointees. I cannot state strongly enough how damaging this brief is to us. Obama didn't just argue a technicality about the case, he argued that DOMA is reasonable. That DOMA is constitutional. That DOMA wasn't motivated by any anti-gay animus. He argued why our Supreme Court victories in Roemer and Lawrence shouldn't be interpreted to give us rights in any other area (which hurts us in countless other cases and battles). He argued that DOMA doesn't discriminate against us because it also discriminates about straight unmarried couples (ignoring the fact that they can get married and we can't).
He actually argued that the courts shouldn't consider Loving v. Virginia, the miscegenation case in which the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to ban interracial marriages, when looking at gay civil rights cases. He told the court, in essence, that blacks deserve more civil rights than gays, that our civil rights are not on the same level.
...Que diablo? But wait, it manages to get worse:
Folks, Obama's lawyers are even trying to diminish the impact of Roemer and Lawrence, our only two big Supreme Court victories. Obama is quite literally destroying our civil rights gains with this brief. He's taking us down for his own benefit.
Holy cow. Obama invoked incest and people marrying children.
The courts have followed this principle, moreover, in relation to the validity of marriages performed in other States. Both the First and Second Restatements of Conflict of Laws recognize that State courts may refuse to give effect to a marriage, or to certain incidents of a marriage, that contravene the forum State's policy. See Restatement (First) of Conflict of Laws § 134; Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws § 284.5 And the courts have widely held that certain marriages performed elsewhere need not be given effect, because they conflicted with the public policy of the forum. See, e.g., Catalano v. Catalano, 170 A.2d 726, 728-29 (Conn. 1961) (marriage of uncle to niece, "though valid in Italy under its laws, was not valid in Connecticut because it contravened the public policy of th[at] state"); Wilkins v. Zelichowski, 140 A.2d 65, 67-68 (N.J. 1958) (marriage of 16-year-old female held invalid in New Jersey, regardless of validity in Indiana where performed, in light of N.J. policy reflected in statute permitting adult female to secure annulment of her underage marriage); In re Mortenson's Estate, 316 P.2d 1106 (Ariz. 1957) (marriage of first cousins held invalid in Arizona, though lawfully performed in New Mexico, given Arizona policy reflected in statute declaring such marriages "prohibited and void").
Then in the next paragraph, they argue that the incest and child rape cases therefore make DOMA constitutional:
The fact that States have long had the authority to decline to give effect to marriages performed in other States based on the forum State's public policy strongly supports the constitutionality of Congress's exercise of its authority in DOMA.
ARE YOU SHRIEKING IN TERROR YET? IT'S INVASION OF THE GODDAMN RIGHT WING BODY SNATCHERS! MAN DOWN!
Holy shit, is that our fierce advocate & strong supporter of gay rights? Because I'm officially done being gay, right now, and I may actually be throwing my black card in as well. Jesus, the president's made some decisions I haven't been fond of but goddamn dude, using the same "incest" trope & throwing in pedophilia and child marriage to defend DOMA is absolutely unacceptable. I'm surprised we didn't just toss in some bestiality slippery slope. As my ex said in the supermarket, "I should have just voted for McCain like everyone else!"
(Note: Come on I haven't lost it that much)
And then you know, they had to cover tracks.
Also, a better analysis, because all I have to say is "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" and "gay marriage damn sure isn't going to make anyone BROKE" and "BOOOOO" again, and finally "FALSE FALSE FALSE NO ES VERDAD".
Wow.
Edyt: I just thought this thread on Jack & Jill Politics was interesting. More varied view points. Honestly I'm still kind of seething though. This is suuuch a clusterfuck.
I'll tell you specifically why I'm probably more miffed than I should feel. I won't lie, I'm usually too busy being black and/or atheist (whichever is more important at the time) to care that much about gay marriage, especially considering where I fucking live, it might be a lifetime before any state in the South wises up.
After the whole Prop 8 fiasco I decided I was done with the G&L community anyhow since I didn't much like white gays calling any one of my people "niggers" thanks to skewed stats. In addition I'm usually the first or only one rolling my eyes when I see "IS OBAMA KEEPING HIS PROMISES TO THE GLBT COMMUNITY?" because usually several questions follow, such as "what community?" and "how many days has it been, 10 now?" I don't jump to defend Obama, and yes I can be critical in my own way.
So when I read something like the above I'm just like "......." I feel a bit like a douche. Not for long, but for a while, I feel like a douche. Or maybe a dick. A horrible rank combination of both. I chilled when I read the Jack & Jill Politics thread and thought "Okay okay, I can see that too" but it doesn't make me feel any less like a douche really, because it happened. Can't you just imagine the backpedaling? I'm kind of waiting on it.
