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Elton John shares his views on Proposition 8
Elton John seems to be a little confused by the question of Proposition 8, which he seems to think is somehow about him. Apparently gays "only have themselves to blame":
"I don't want to be married," he says. "David and I are not married. Let's get that right. We have a civil partnership. What is wrong with Proposition 8 is that they went for marriage. Marriage is going to put a lot of people off. It's the word marriage."
The 61-year-old pop star believes that same-sex couples should be happy with a civil partnership as it gives them the same legal rights and protection as straight couples. "I'm very happy with a civil partnership," he adds. "If gay people want to get married, or get together, they should have a civil partnership."
Yes, of course you don't want to be married, do you Elton? Marriage is a sacred institution between a man and his recording engineer, and not to be entered into lightly.
Now, if Elton doesn't want to get married to David Furnish, great. Nobody should force him to. But just because that's right for him doesn't mean he should support a nasty attempt to stop gay people for whom a civil partnership isn't the statement they choose to make.
And, to be blunt, John is deluded if the thinks the homophobes who funded Proposition 8 were doing so simply because they object to the idea of gay people being 'married'. The Mormon Church, whose members lavishly funded the campaign to withdraw rights from gay people [Google Doc] in California, are pretty clear that homosexuality is immoral:
The Church has a single, undeviating standard of sexual morality: intimate relations are proper only between a husband and a wife united in the bonds of matrimony.
Is Elton really so stupid he thinks that a group so committed to pouring cash into removing marriage rights simply because it's the word they object to? Does he really think that a group who are so busily organising themselves, driven by a belief that they should be arbiters of sexual morality for world, are going to meet each other at Temple and say "so long as they only have a civil partnership when they shag each other, that'll be alright"?
Elton John has always seemed a little selfish, and a little self-obsessed, but to not fight for a right simply because you yourself are happy without it is a step beyond. John didn't really do that much to help with the struggle for gay equality; you would have thought the least he could do was try and be a bit more careful with the gifts others bled for.
4 comments:
The problem is that, AFAIK, California has no concept of civil partnerships; gay couples have no status in the law, and no rights; they are slugged with the same punitive taxes as couples "living in sin", and if one of the couple passes away, their parents have power of veto over their partner inheriting any of the property they shared. Which makes Proposition 8 a very real disenfranchisement of gays and lesbians.
"couples should be happy with a civil partnership as it gives them the same legal rights and protection as straight couples"
Except, of course, it doesn't. It doesn't give you the equal legal right to marriage! Personally I think the entire concept of the civil partnership is just insulting. It is, by definition, inequality.
The frightening thing about the whole proposition 8 thing (which "celebrities" who like John, who obviously doesn't give a crap, are suddenly going on about more than a week afterwards) is that it's tame in comparison to the new Arkansas adoption laws passed at the same time. They're banning all unmarried couples from adopting children. Much as this effects ALL unmarried couples it was basically proposed as a measure to ban gay couples from adopting. It's an absolutely disgusting piece of legislation.
There are civil unions in CA, which convey pretty-much the same rights as marriage, as long as you don't cross the border. They aren't perfect, by any means, but as a gay couple you are still much better off in CA than in GA.
Here's a thought - why don't you just stop pretending that you were "born" this way and just can't help it, curb your perversive desires, and become the heterosexual you were meant to be? And why would you protest a majority decision? If the most liberal state in America doesn't want legal marriages between same sexes, who are you protesting against? The majority of Californians?
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