Prop 8 inches closer to the grave

The weird thing about a piece of legislature like Prop 8 is that in a sane rational world, we wouldn’t need people to create massive campaigns and rallies in order to tell everyone that these laws are batshit insane. Despite the religious fervour that is usually used to push shit like this, every homo- and transphobic bill out there is based entirely on the basic idea that “Ewww, they do stuff with their genitals that isn’t like the stuff WE do with our genitals! Which is nothing!”

So it’s nice to see that Proposition 8 was finally declared unconstitutional by the state of California, which admittedly took a tad longer than it took the hundreds of thousands of people who pointed out that this shit was kind of an affront to basic human rights over three years ago.

Here’s the thing: as far forward as we’ve come, and as advanced as we like to think we are, people still feel that what they think is right is more important than what has already been proven right. It’s already been proven that same-sex relationships are as healthy and stable as opposite-sex ones, that trans people aren’t freaks just because they want to change their outer appearance to reflect their inner appearance, and that the invisible bearded sky giant probably won’t destroy the world because the Mayans ran out of room when creating their calendar.

But none of that matters because a lot of people think that’s all wrong. It doesn’t matter if something has been scientifically proven unless people are willing to believe it’s true. Which is kind of the problem with working toward queer rights: the only thing keeping us from our rights is a bunch of stupid people who are too stupid to understand they’re wrong. Which totally doesn’t get annoying at all.

www.nataliedee.com
www.nataliedee.com

Keep Reading

Job discrimination against trans and non-binary people is alive and well

OPINION: A study reveals that we have a long way to go to reach workplace equality for trans and non-binary people

The new generation of gay Conservative sellouts

OPINION: Melissa Lantsman’s and Eric Duncan’s refusals to call out their party’s transphobia is a betrayal of the LGBTQ2S+ community

Over 300 anti-LGBTQ2S+ bills have been introduced this year. This doesn’t mean we should panic

OPINION: While it’s important to watch out for threats, not all threats are created equally. Some of these bills will die a natural death

Xtra’s top LGBTQ2S+ stories of the year

The best and brightest—even most bewildering—stories from a back catalogue brimming with insight