Friday, April 19, 2013

Defending Your Support of Marriage

Are you being criticized for your defense of marriage, and state licenses requiring both a bride and a groom, rather than excluding women or excluding men? Maybe friends, family, bosses, customers, coworkers, social networking contacts, bloggers, and commenters have lashed out and you or pressured you?  Maybe you have received angry calls from strangers that you perceived as threatening bodily harm to you, but in retrospect, you realize that the person calling you willingly subjects himself to the described treatment for jollies? Have you been called a hater or a bigot?
Well, I think I have a solution.

Feel free to copy and paste this defense I am providing below.  You don’t even have to give me credit.  Just be sure to modify it so your critic's name appears in the salutation. Modify as necessary to be relevant to your circumstances. I refer to California Proposition 8, for example.






Dear [insert name of your critic here],
I know you are upset with me.  Perhaps I can get you to understand why I have spoken out or voted in defense of marriage.

You see, from an early age, I have felt something deep inside me. I knew I was different from a lot of other kids around me.   thought maybe I was the only one who had these feelings. I felt shame and self-loathing.

But as I got older, I found out that I wasn’t the only one.

You see, I am sexually attracted to supporting marriage amendments, to defending marriage as a bride+groom union that supports diversity and integrates the sexes. I oppose segregation,  and oppose excluding women or excluding men, because I'm neither a misogynist nor a misandrist. I'm not sexist, I think BOTH sexes deserve representation.

Now, I thought maybe I just needed the right experience with judicial tyranny for homofascism. That if I had a good experience with judicial tyranny or homofascism, I could live happily ever after with letting judges and dudes who demand everyone else celebrate that they like to take it up the exit pipe tell me what to do, changing the meaning of words, invalidating my vote, and making me give things to other people even though I don’t want to.

But I couldn't deny the truth. I tried. I tried to conform to what those judges and special interest groups wanted. I tried to listen to my Hollywood idols, my lesbian pastor, my college professor, my hippie parents- who all said that defending marriage was wrong and would rot my brain. Still, I found myself keeping the official California voter pamphlet under my mattress, and sneaking peaks at the text of Prop 8. It was so short, so simple, but it was enough to turn me on. I couldn't sneak around anymore. I couldn't live a lie.

Bells went off when I donated money or time or my words or expertise to supporting the passage of a marriage amendment.  In pulling that lever to support Proposition 8, I felt true love. I felt so happy and free. I was so alive!
I had come to grips with my sexual orientation.  I am attracted to supporting marriage amendments.

I know that's not what you wanted to hear. I didn't choose to feel this way. It is how I've always felt.  And since it is my sexual orientation, you have to respect that and allow me to do whatever I need to do to find fulfillment of my desires. You may find it repulsive or disgusting, or dysfunctional or irrational or just plain wrong. But please don't judge me or hate me for being who I am. Perhaps you can get over your Eightophobia by attending meetings of Parents and Friends of Marriage Amendment Supporters? That would mean so much to me. If you'd like, I can send over a new book for your kids to read that will help them deal with this: My Uncle Likes Supporting Traditional Marriage... a Lot. It is a pop-up book.

Thank you for your understanding and acceptance. I know that, since this is my sexual orientation, you have to support me in how I feel and can't criticize me for doing anything that I say is a result of my sexual orientation, nor deny my anything that I say I need because of my sexual orientation.  After all, it is all about love and happiness.

That is why I supported Prop 8. I had to be true to myself.

Thanks again!


No comments:

Post a Comment

I always welcome comments. Be aware that anything you write may be thoroughly analyzed and used in subsequent blog entries.