I Hate Prop. 8, too (two)

Amen, Tamika. I hate it, too. I've been writing about it all. bloody. week. for The Advocate. And I still hate it. I marched with 5000 in West Hollywood and hate it even more. I want to get married someday just like my neighbors, a couple who have been together for 30 years, did last September. They decided to move to New York the day after Prop. 8 passed.

I have no doubt California (and the United States) will legalize same-sex marriage eventually, but can we just hurry it up and get with the program? We'll keep fighting, but it gets exhausting having to fight just for love and few basic rights. It should be such a non-issue. Black people can marry White people. Duh. I can (someday) marry my girlfriend, whose eyes are the only ones that really see me. Duh. My rainbow flag is starting to fade a little with all the sun it's been getting lately. Iowa, Spain and South Africa sure got the memo. I will be so happy when 30 years from now my future kids think this whole fight was completely ludicrous. Until then, love is love.

I hate Prop. 8

I hate it, hate it, hate it that the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8 - the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages. I think it's absurd. Just absurd. But what to do? Onward and upward.

This video is appalling!

Miss California tells Miss USA judge Perez Hilton that she thinks marriage should be between a man and a woman. I am appalled!

No, not at her answer. I expected as much from a beauty contestant. I'm appalled because it's 2009 and there is still a beauty pageant on television.

Prop. 8 Watch

There are several legal challenges to California's Proposition 8, and tomorrow (March 5th) the state supreme court will hear oral arguments.

Read the background here.

Watch the oral arguments on The California Channel beginning at 9 a.m. PT tomorrow.

Watch Equality California's new video about the court challenge.

California's Prop. 8 fight continues

On March 5th the California Supreme Court will hear arguments about the constitutionality of Proposition 8 and whether the 18,000 same-sex couples who got married before the November election will remain married.

In the meantime, the Prop. 8 actions and protests continue. California activists are using Freedom to Marry Day and Valentine's Day to voice their ongoing concerns, and the Courage Campaign created a video called "Fidelity."

Dignity and justice for all of us

Keeping with the theme of “dignity and justice for all of us,” the United Nations plans a day of events Wednesday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights will be distributed to several activists, including one given posthumously to Benazir Bhutto.

Holler At Your Girls continues its commitment to blog about human rights by publishing the final 10 articles of the declaration below. (Article 23 made me think of our tough economic times.)

And before I forget, December 10th will not only be a day for human rights, but also a day for gay rights activists to show the world what they're made of. Check it out here.

Article 21. (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. (2) Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country. (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22. Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23. (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25. (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26. (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27. (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28. Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29. (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible. (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society. (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30. Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Always time for human rights

As I mentioned yesterday, Human Rights Day is on the horizon, and the time to think about human rights is always right now. So here are articles 11 – 20 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

By the way … I thought of California’s Proposition 8 when I read Article 16.

Article 11. (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence. (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14. (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15. (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16. (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17. (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.