This video will break your heart
By Julia Rosen Friday Feb 06, 2009 6:00am(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)
And Ken Starr is to blame.
Yes, that Ken Starr. The prosecutor who led the campaign to impeach President Bill Clinton has filed a legal brief -- on behalf of the "Yes on 8" campaign -- that would forcibly divorce the 18,000 same-sex couples married in California last year before the passage of Prop 8.
News broke Tuesday that the California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on March 5, and will then make a decision within 90 days on the validity of Prop 8 and these 18,000 marriages.
When Starr's legal brief went public in December, the Courage Campaign immediately launched the "Don't Divorce..." campaign, asking our members to send us pictures with a simple message for Starr and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund.
Those pictures, and the heartfelt messages on them, inspired blogger Paul Delehanty (kid oakland) to send us a suggestion: Would Regina Spektor allow us to put the pictures to the words and music of her hit song "Fidelity"? So, we asked her and she said yes, very enthusiastically.
Regina Spektor's song, in concert with the pictures, shines a beautiful light on the 18,000 couples that Ken Starr wants to forcibly divorce.
Watch "Fidelity," the heartbreaking music video, and then tell the Supreme Court not to divorce 18,000 California couples. Tell the Court to invalidate Prop 8, reject Ken Starr's case, and let loving, committed couples marry. DEADLINE: Valentine's Day.
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That ad will not have the desired effect. The supporters of Prop 8 don't really like gays, and no amount of teary eyed imagery will change that.
If fact, it will probably have the opposite effect, and just reenforce their hatred.
If you hate someone, the last thing you want to see them happy in life. They took away your rights, divorce would be the icing on the cake.
I don't think the point is to change the minds of the haters but to get the sympathy and support of the general public. Too many good, moral people are standing aside as this gay marriage debate goes on allowing the haters to dictate their version of morality to this country.
Because supporters of Prop 8 are Gaycists.
We've become such a mean spirited country.
Yes we have. The cowboy, we're tough, don't mess with the USA, attitude of the past eight hasn't helped any either.
I cannot imagine what goes on in someone's head and heart that makes them so adamant against gay marriage. I just can't.
Sure seems that way, doesn't it? It's pretty discouraging to see and hear the vitriol everyday, even on subjects that aren't controversial, just cause everyone's got their opinion and they don't give a shit about what anyone else thinks. Never mind logic, reason or compassion.
It's the "me first" mentality, and it absolutely has been helped along by the shrub, but it comes back to all of us too...I think that's the biggest thing holding this country back. Most people just don't care about their fellow human beings anymore. That's why torture, wiretapping and the decimation of habeas corpus have gone without the riotous outrage they should have been met with.
If it's not turned around, we'll be living in a new dark age before you know it.
the extensive marketing...by corporate, religious and quasi religious entities...and we know what it is (the whole..."you are the most important person", "you are special", "you can be whoever you want", "you matter"...etc....has created an entire country of self centered, narcissistic infants who no longer care about the feelings of others (unless actually confronted with that person...then it's all "ohhh...I feel so bad...and yes you're right" empty rhetoric)...but we don't see people behind the labels...like...gays, blacks, minorities, "poor families"...etc, etc.
No, we TALK about community...but then hunker down behind our gated communities and tvs...and can't look beyond our own addresses.
There is no great community...it is some abstract that sounds nice...but Americans don't really know what it means. They don't give a shit. They don't see that dated prejudices have real consequences....they don't see the victims of those prejudices...they don't see the impact on our society...they don't see how it looks to the outside world...that is why we torture now...it's why we turn a blind eye to police brutality...illegal war...we collectively don't give a shit. As long as MY apple cart isn't upset...I don't really give a shit about everyone else...THAT is the bottom line for MOST...yes...I said MOST...Americans.
We are a sad, pathetic, backward, inward looking country of idiots with such a limited view of the world that it really is embarrassing.
fuckheads.
What's to come when you hear oral arguments concerning gay rights?
they'll have to pull out their briefs.
A reaction:
The video is effective, but it and most of the posts miss the point. The point is that it is illegal and unconstitutional to void the marriages, because that makes Prop 8, in effect, and ex post facto law.
I have a prediction:
A. Starr will argue that
1. Ca. voters have the right to undo a court's ruling (here, the one that held same sex marriages to be legal
2. The US Constitution bans only criminal, but not civil, ex post facto laws.
B. The Court will hold as follows:
1. Proposition 8 had the effect of a constituional amendment, which passage failed to satisfy the requirements of the CA constittuion for passage. In other words, a mere popular vote cannot amend the CA constitution and have the effect of nullifying thousands of marriages that were legal when entered into.
2. CA has a long history of "direct democracy." Nonetheless, retroactive nullificatin of even one marriage that was legal when entered into is against a long history of legal precedent.
Here is a practical definition of ex post facto laws:
Defined: An ex post facto law (from the Latin for "after the fact") or retroactive law, is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of acts committed or the legal status of facts and relationships that existed prior to the enactment of the law.
Best,
Jblaw27
Ain't democracy a bitch?
Almost as big a bitch as bigotry, hatred and FUCKING STUPIDITY.
But not quite.
This sets a bad precedent, and will weaken the institution of mattressmony further than gay marriages would.
It's the cure being worse than the disease.
Or
The operation was successful, but the patient died.
...fucked up marriage(family members included). Of course many people in failed relationships hate seeing happy couples. That mixed with abject bigotry and privacy invading ignorance makes this issue another sad embarrassing chapter in which "normal" Americans impose their prejudiced double standards on those who happen to be different.
or maybe it's because I am pregnant, but the video had me weeping and I am at work. I just about lost it at the Korean War vets that have been together for 43 years. What kind of heartless, cruel people want to break up such happy marriages? I really can't understand it, cynical as I am. I just don't get people that are happy to wallow in misery and badness. Those people in the video were incredibly beautiful and if I could fly back home to the USA and chain myself to the California Supreme Court to support them , I would.
I love marriage. It's hard but there is this silly girlish bit of me that wants to see everybody happily married, regardless of sexuality. I want gay people that are willing to adopt to have as many kids as they can love and afford. (Incidentally, why is it that I see pics of gay white couples that seem to adopt older black kids? It makes me very happy that someone is willing to give these kids a home.)
I recently went to a wedding where the marriage broke up after the honeymoon. The whole thing lasted 2 weeks. How come that is okay, yet 2 men or 2 women would have unions that span decades dissolved.
Though I am an atheist, I really wish there was a hell where these Yes on Prop 8 voters and Ken Starr could spend the rest of eternity thinking about their terrible actions.
I'm neither happily married nor pregnant, and I cried like a toddler with a scraped knee. You don't have to be involved in the institution of marriage to understand the point to that video.
I'm neither maried, pregnant nor LGBT but I haven't even watched the video yet because I know it will tear me up. I just signed the petition and spread the word. I'll watch the video later when I can deal with the thought of the evil son of a bitches who would destroy these peoples lives.
It will... at the very least. I just had a good cry after watching it.
There is NO point in this lawsuit to dissolve the marriages except malevolence.
As one sign in the video said you CANNOT vote away love (or something to that effect).
The Courage Campaign has broken me out in tears while I eat my breakfast and peruse the net. THANK YOU!
I have fought all my live for justice for all, no matter who they are. I will never lay die down my sword of justice until we are all equal under the law.
Keep up the fight in California and you have my full support.
And I will never lay down on my laid down sword.
I laid down on my sword last night.
I usually sleep on my chest.
I always lay down on my chest now, or I can't breathe.
Back when I was in the Air Force I got sick during Basic from all their innoculations, and spent three days in the hospital.
A guy in the bed next to mine said I spooked some doctors when they passed through the ward and saw me in my then favorite sleeping position. This was flat on my back, with my legs straight, toes pointing up, and my arms placed straight at my sides or crossed over my chest. He said the worst part was that as they passed, my eyes opened and watched them, but I didn't awake.
Later guys told me I growled in my sleep, and even smash my fist into the wall.
and caring. Moral: Mormonism and Air Force immunizations lead to occaisional outbursts of zombie posterizing.
Keep up the good fight PJ---there are many of us that feel as you and are undeterred by the comfort of status quo and those who oppose equity and justice.
If you have time, read Paul Rogat Loeb's book "The Impossible Will Take a Little While." (www.paulloeb.org) It will give you a unique perspective on how difficult the struggle for social justice is---but with perseverence and patience, we can overcome.
Nothing worthwhile is easy---and to paraphrase Gandhi, in time, good always triumphs over evil.
All my best to you.
It's pretty bad enough that this country actually had laws to prevent us white folks from marrying those of other races... Now the trend continues to keep people from getting married simply because they're of the same gender.
When are we just going to freaking grow up and quit acting like children?
There's no cause I can see to keep two consenting adults apart that love each other.
I would be upset if someone told me that I had to divorce my wife because she was too blonde. (It equates to about the same thing.)
I am a black lady married to a white man. I'm not old enough to have been affected by the anti-miscegenation laws and my state didn't have them. No one, except for a few grade-A nutjobs would petition the Supreme Court to make interracial marriages illegal, so why gay marriage? My marriage is not in danger if gay people get married.
Your house must have thirty-foot-high walls! With a moat and a drawbridge! And dragons guarding every door! You must have laser-sighting turrets with guns trained on the roadways, and and bulletproof armor for every member of your family (including the dog), and Super Sekrit Speshul Influence-Killing Helmets, and, and, and...
Because HOW ELSE COULD YOU BE SAFE???
...I think perhaps we should act more like little children. As, they are very accepting and loving toward others --- until they are taught to hate.
My husband and I have been married just over 22 years. I can't imagine there being a law passed that would disolve our marriage. That would be beyond a nightmare. I would fight like hell to have that law over turned. Now everyone has to fight like hell for these gay marriages. It's not just that it's the right thing to do, it's the loving human thing to do.
Going on 13 years here, I'm Asian, my wife is Caucasian. I was raised Catholic (but haven't been to church for years), she's Wiccan.
If gay marriage can be outlawed/taken away so easily, then there's no reason these Rapture-ready racists won't try to tell me I shouldn't be married on the basis of race or that my wife is supposed to burn in Hell.
I'mma ustabe Mormon, Wiccae for several decades, so you know they expect me to burn in hell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW-fDELm7qo
(Don't take that as a come on. I don't want your wife to cast a spell on me.)
The Nazi's passed laws like this all the time. They segregated the gays, the blacks, the jews, the infirm, the disabled. All designed to dehumanize these groups.
It made them easier to lock up and kill later.
Be warned. I don't know how you guys can miss whats going on with Arny down there and all the FEMA camps everywhere...
If any of these "yes on 8" measures is allowed to prevail, it will set such a dangerous precedent. The will of the many, even in a democracy, should never be allowed to make the decision about what rights a group of people should have. I think the legal challenges to this stupid initiative will largely be based on this fact, and it will hopefully be the deciding factor.
Didn't we used to have a quaint little concept against 'ex post facto laws'? Granted, I learned about it in grade school, and it may be from an antediluvian era, but I seem to remember it being written down somewhere. Wouldn't that apply here?
Before the flood?
I believe ex post facto is in criminal law only.
technically it's now illegal to marry someone who is the same gender as you in California, so anybody who did would be criminals. Ex post facto applies here. They can't punish these people for doing something that at the time was legal.
... the legal analyst on our station (Judge LaDoris Cordell) pointed out that laws are proactive, that is, correct/criminalize future instances, and not retroactive (correcting/criminalizing past instances).
Since when did Ken Starr give a rat's ass about the Constitution, except when it was coincidentally useful to his latest witch hunt?
a majority of politicians are lawyers, I'm surprised they don't have the media spinning full tilt in favour of gay marriage. All that money to be made with gay divorce should be overwhelmingly convincing for them.
Ken Starr is another old coot who should be put out to pasture. For all we know he's in a large, undisclosed closet sucking Cheney's flaccid dick right now.
"This video will break your heart" Unless you are a christian.
And don't give me that bloody "good christian, bad christian" crap. It is Teh Truth!
(and included in the word "christian" there are all other beliefs like; muslim, jews and other bronze age ideals)
BTW, my prime minister is a lesbian... and she bloody rocks.
Not all of us Christians are Bible-thumping nutjobs.
Of course, as far as evangelicals are concerned, I'm a heathen without honor and don't even have the right to quote Scripture to their faces.
It confuses them when I go into church history, councils, creeds and how the New Testament seems to follow the dramaturgical elements of Dionysian theatre.
is easily confused. Especially when introducing thespian concepts in an already inflamed environment.
I think Xena and Gabrielle were thespians.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn4eky7n0Cg
And Gabrielle always seemed to be such a nice girl. Whodathunkit?
I would have to agree that Religion (The forced indoctrination of someone else's beliefs, used against the populace to force conformity and control) has been hampering mankind's progress for at least 100 years now.
It still has stories to teach and we can use the myths to glean details about the past, but other than that, it's a barbaric murderous cult we offer sacrifices too. Usually in the form of dignity and truth.
What next? Are they going to come after married couples who decided not to have children? I mean that's their big argument, that gay couples can't have kids and therefore the human race will go down the pipes or something.
Automatic divorce for all those who are found to be sterile!
people not be with their significant others if they weren't allowed by church and state to marry? The entire idea is ludicrous. So if you don't have a ring on your finger, and recognized by the church and state as a couple, you aren't married? What is marriage? Tax credits? An easier way for the gov't to keep track of people, as in one household instead of two? Government benefits? If that is the only reason people are "together" is to get recognized, then maybe they shouldn't be together. What extra rights do married couples have? The right to have the gov't declare that two people's incomes are one? The right to have children? Single people can't have children? I don't understand the entire process. Never could. I would still be with my wife, even without a ring and a piece of paper. The only thing marriage seems to do, is make it very expensive, and lawyer stimulating, to get a divorce.
Nice use of framing, but the gay couples will not be divorced with the parting of the ways, the division of property, child custody agreements, and etc. The unions will be annulled. Presumably the couples will remain together and the children won't know the difference in their daily lives. The court is probably going to find Prop 8 unconstitutional anyway. Then too, Ken Starr must do things to keep his name on the lips of conservatives so he can earn a living, if you call what he does living.
How about this feint being something of a tactical displacement? If same sex marriages can be so trivially annulled, can the argument be made that all marriages shall then be annulled? Wouldn't such a decision by the courts warrant an effort by interested parties to de-legitamize hetero marriages on the grounds of equal protection?
It made me all misty-eyed because I am happy for any people who could give and receive love like that in their lifetimes. We should all be so lucky. It's a beautiful thing and I just don't get why people like Starr expend energy telling others who they can and can't love or telling them that their love is less valuable than someone of whom he approves.
Fundy, gaycist trolls:
Don't bother pointing out to me that Starr is only destroying their marriages and not their love. Save me the technicalities and quibbling.
...how to embed this video? I've been wanting to add it to my blog, but when I go to the vimeo site, I can't find any way to embed it.
Does anybody know where the info is to do that?
Lemongrass,
Pressplay. Hold your curser over the clip and you'll see the < / > embed code tab. Click it and press "copy to clipboard" then you can embed into blog.
I never thought of that. D'oh! Guess I'm too accustomed to Youtube.
And keep his nose out of other people's private business.
Guys, put other prop votes up. That's all you have to do to prove the inhumanity of this.
PROP 13 "Hispanics are not allowed to hold hands in public."
PROP 14 "Blacks must adopt only white children."
PROP 15 "All Jews must get married to a Sow."
That's just the same thing as what they are calling for. so put some Props up.
Create an uproar.
PROP 1 "All Caucasians must now be referred to in public as "The Chosen race""
That would be a good one.
How you guys cannot see the totalitarianism of what you are voting for and allowing?
You cannot be seen in public without a hamburger and/or a soda in your hand.
A pal of mine made a remix from within his virtual bedroom. First time I heard it my reaction was: SHYTE! THAT'S GOOD!! This was never available in stores. Hope you like it.
http://hypem.com/track/393300/Regina+Spektor-Fidelity+(Morgan+Page+Unreleased+Remix)
(ps. The playbutton is quite small, and on the left side of the screen.)
"Yes, that Ken Starr."
It's like all social conservatism has left to champion its causes are lunatics and has-beens.
hate happy people. Can someone tell me again why Prop 8 NEEDED to be passed? The ignorant bigots need to be reminded that they are the minority.
I am re-entering this comments, so that it goes by date (at the top) (I am new to this, sorry.)
A reaction:
The video is effective, but it and most of the posts miss the point. The point is that it is illegal and unconstitutional to void the marriages, because that makes Prop 8, in effect, and ex post facto law.
I have a prediction:
A. Starr will argue that
1. Ca. voters have the right to undo a court's ruling (here, the one that held same sex marriages to be legal
2. The US Constitution bans only criminal, but not civil, ex post facto laws.
B. The Court will hold as follows:
1. Proposition 8 had the effect of a constituional amendment, which passage failed to satisfy the requirements of the CA constittuion for passage. In other words, a mere popular vote cannot amend the CA constitution and have the effect of nullifying thousands of marriages that were legal when entered into.
2. CA has a long history of "direct democracy." Nonetheless, retroactive nullificatin of even one marriage that was legal when entered into is against a long history of legal precedent.
Here is a practical definition of ex post facto laws:
Defined: An ex post facto law (from the Latin for "after the fact") or retroactive law, is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of acts committed or the legal status of facts and relationships that existed prior to the enactment of the law.
Best,
Jblaw27
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