A Bird\’s Nest

My orthodox nineteen year old cousin updated his Facebook status today to read: “[x] is ardently supporting the IDF and their previosuly [sic] taken actions in addition to hoping there will be no cease fire”.* Hoping he was joking, I asked “Why would you hope for no cease fire?” He replied, “So we can finally end rocket attacks on Israel once and for all.” “By just wiping all the Palestinians out?” I inquired sarcastically. His sixteen year old sister answered, “yah if we can.”

There is absolutely nothing I want to say to these two children right now that wouldn’t wreak havoc in our family later. But I am ashamed.

*This was probably a response to my own Facebook status, which is currently “Uccellina wrote to her congresspeople to demand the US work for a cease-fire in Gaza NOW.” My letter, for those inclined to write their own, went as follows: “As a Jewish woman and a mother, I ask you to ensure that the United States employs all diplomatic means to move for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, and suspends all weapons deliveries and all military resupply to the IDF while it campaigns in Gaza. The AP reports that Gaza’s largest hospital is completely overwhelmed, and few if any of the casualties are militants. Please, please help put an end to this.”

I struggled with what to write about today. I considered baby stories (still not sleeping! I’m really tired!); I pondered knitting anxieties (seaming! Argh!). But I kept coming back to one stark fact: I’m not blogging about Proposition 8. And I’m not doing it because I don’t have to. It doesn’t affect me. Not personally. My marriage is still safe. No one’s angling to take it away, or prevent me from doing it again tomorrow if I so choose. Why should I talk about Prop 8 when I could tell funny stories or put up cute baby photos instead?

Not talking about things is a privilege granted to those in unmarked categories. Not talking about racism is a privilege of being White. Not talking about sexism is a privilege of being male. And not talking about prop 8 is a privilege of being straight. But here’s the thing: I’m not straight. My romantic relationships before I met my husband? Were with women. One of whom I stayed with for nearly four years. What if we had stayed together? What if I had had twins with her? In that case, you better believe I would be outraged, furious, saddened, and blogging about this every single day.* So I owe it not to someone else to talk about this, write about this, and generally make a stink, but to myself. To myself and to my children, who might come home one day with same-sex partners. Who might one day want to marry them.

I won’t write about it every day, because did I mention cute baby photos? But I will be bringing it up again. And again. Until the damn thing’s fixed.

Faith is blogging about it regularly, and has details on local Los Angeles protests and boycotts.

Here’s a website with more information on protests and actions.

And here, if you haven’t yet watched it, is Keith Olbermann’s excellent rant.

*Well, okay, I’d probably still be putting up cute baby photos sometimes.

At the same time California votes to make a Black man president, it bans same-sex marriage.

This Washington Post article from June explains the clusterfuck that could well result from this law. What will happen to the thousands of couples who married between May 15 and yesterday? Will heterosexual marriages be halted under the part of the Supreme Court decision not altered by this amendment, which prohibits different recognition of same-sex couples and heterosexual couples?

I hope by the time Robin and Wren are grown up, they’ll be guaranteed the right to marry no matter what their sexual orientation.

Edited to add: Faith has more here.

I stood in a line for an hour and fifteen minutes this morning, and even though long lines are, as Rachel Maddow points out, a poll tax, I was proud to be there.

I am hopeful. I am optimistic. I am nervous. I am eager.

I may be overcaffeinated.

I am enjoying checking this and seeing the differences between the words entered by McCain and Obama supporters.

How are you feeling?

This letter was sent to business donors to the No on Prop 8 campaign. It states that “Equality California is advertising on its website that it has received a contribution of at least $10,000 from you,” and goes on to request demand a donation to the anti-gay-marriage campaign in order to “correct this error.” Where it gets really creepy:

Were you not to donate comparably, it would be a clear indication that you are in opposition to traditional marriage. You would leave us no other reasonable assumption. The names of any companies and organizations that choose not to donate in like manner to ProtectMarriage.com but have given to Equality California will be published.

Here’s the link to donate to No On Prop 8. Show those bigots what you think of intimidation, dammit.

Now is the time to donate. Let your support be known.

From Looky , Daddy!

Because my voter registration was never updated to reflect my married name, despite two attempts on my part, I updated it again a few months ago. It occurred to me today – yes, on the voter registration deadline for California – that I should probably check to make sure it had gone through. So I went to https://lavote.net/SECURED/VOTER_REG/, entered my info, and waited. And sure enough, it had been updated. Unfortunately, some idiot schmuck McCain/Palin peon underpaid, overworked employee at the County Recorder managed to enter my address incorrectly, and now I’m supposed to show up to vote in a totally new and different location, where my registration could quite possibly be challenged because it doesn’t match my ID. And I would not have known this if I hadn’t checked. So please, please check your voter registration. This is the link for LA County online verification, and if you live somewhere else the League of Women Voters will tell you where to call or go online.

In case you hadn’t heard, the McCain campaign is stepping up efforts to intimidate voters and challenge voter registrations, under the guise of countering the miniscule and irrelevant ACORN registration fraud. Please minimize your chances of losing out to voter suppression.

Now I’m going to go spend the next few hours listening to the County Recorder’s hold music on its two-minute loop, trying to sort this out.