When it becomes personal...SB1437

So last week my partner receives an email from a high school friend. This woman is also godmother to her child, etc. They've remained close, in touch, and visit one another a few times a year. Said friend lives in So California. Evidently there's this prop on the ballot to give the public school more pronoun freedom in their curriculum. To put it in a nutshell, they cannot ban books or the use of same gender pronouns or people such as Jill and Jill instead of Jack and Jill. It allows teachers to be flexible when discussing families. This format would include single parenting, same gender parenting, bi-racial parenting, etc. You know, an actual portrayal of real life for children to identify with.

So, in the usual norm of blanket forwarding friends, this person includes my partner on her email to SUPPORT the fight to defeat this proposition which promotes understanding and acceptance. Just FYI - she's also a born again...okay. That said, my partner and I are furious. Because she is "godmother" to one of her kids, she took even more offense (if possible) at the idea that her "thoughts" on the matter are damaging to her children. She has never been okie-doke with my partner's choices in life at this stage of the game but always claims to love, etc. Blah! Yea right.

So an email was sent back to said friend and was cc'd to all of the people included in the original email list as she wants to be sure NO ONE identifies her as one of the people who feel the way of the "christian way right." Well, the whole next day the phone calls/voice messages kept coming. She asked that her friends not be emailed and that she really wants to talk and that she should be able to have a difference of opinion and that it's her beliefs just as it is my partners. Yada yada yada. My partner has not had a conversation with her yet as we're still feeling a bit bruised over this whole shebang to say the least.

What I have a hard time getting over - as does my partner - is how does this woman; hell, this group of "believers", sleep at night when they spend SO MUCH energy to make our lives miserable. Our goal in life is to find happiness and enjoy life; we don't wage props to remove rights from others. Why do these people feel they deserve to get married, or have families, or have benefits in case their partner falls ill or passes, etc... yet we do not? Do they truly feel better than us? Do they think they've earned it and we're just asking to be granted this special right? And the underlying factor here, the real bottom line as she puts it, is it's just a difference of opinion. Maybe for her. Whether this prop passes or fails, her life isn't affected. Mine is.

Althought I've never met her, I have never liked this said friend. I normally have no issues with people, especially those I've never met. But from the jump, when my partner and I first started seeing each other (the very first night), I heard stories of this friend that showed her to be a judgemental, ignorant, bigot who hid behind her faith as a curtain of all that is holy. My partner knows this for I've never made it secret. I knew I'd never want to meet her for I would not be able to contain myself.

I bust my ass for an average of 65 hours a week between two jobs including a third shift and I get two days off a month. My partner and I take care of our family, each other, our pets, our house, our cars, and take nothing from the state nor the government. We pay my taxes, maintain our property, and take pride in what we contribute to our society. We hold doors for everyone as we enter/exit buildings, nod or say hello when we see a stranger, and I am constantly giving people the current time or directions somewhere (really I do, all the time, I'm like friggin' Information). I've earned the right as a citizen to be granted the same respect as everyone else. I'm not asking for handouts, welfare, or pity; it's getting ridiculous.

In a country that is supposedly set up as a seperation of church and state our current government has really driven home its faith by trying to amend the constitution to DENY rights to a group of people. Our whole basis as a country is being tried and tested on the basis of one party's beliefs. How is this acceptable, especially in 2006?! Can someone explain why these people are so concerned with lives that have nothing to do with their own?

There's now a prop in AZ to remove the domestic partner benefits from people; which not only affects same sex couples but ALL folks of Arizona. Why? I don't understand this hate and fear and the notion that it's a matter of a mere difference of opinion speaks volumes. For us, it's our lives, our futures, our happiness. For them, it's a political button, a difference of opinion; a belief. How convenient.