California's Prop 8

The following is an email from Caroline that I thought warranted posting:

Hi friends!

Even though most of us live in New York, I am urging you all to turn an eye toward California and Proposition 8 (aka Proposition Hate).

I avoided marriage for a long time because I firmly believed that, when people choose a partner poorly (as is often the case), it can derail their lives and their ambitions and drain their wallets. That being said, I always thought that anyone foolish enough to want to get married -- homosexual or heterosexual -- should be entitled to do so. In my unmarried state, I was actually sure that gay people would come to their senses and realize how lucky they were, that marriage is a sucker's bet.

As it turns out, though, marriage is actually grand, it changes your relationship in ways big and small, seen and unseen, spoken and unspoken. I'm lucky to have married Curt in Manhattan this year. Not just because he's the coolest guy in the universe (sorry, Sean Penn). But because he's a man, I'm a woman, and we live in New York. No one can rescind or nullify the legal status of our marriage. In California, that is, sadly, not the case. And the unions of thousands of couples who have been enjoying the same marital bliss as I (and, I hope, Curt) have are on the line. That's right, folks. Proposition 8, if it stands, will likely void the marriages of all these couples, many of whom have fought and waited years for the right to do so. It will also render it impossible for those people in same-sex relationships to wed or have their union recognized in California.

This is a civil rights issue at its core. If you don't believe me, read this great piece from the Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-liu10-2008nov10,0,3403185.story

And, if you feel as I do, give a couple of bucks to GLAAD to help in this fight: http://www.glaad.org/

Or, if you're free on Saturday, join the march in Manhattan. http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/page/New+York+City

Cheers...

cml
aka Mrs. Caroline M.L. Potter