Political babbling
Jun. 19th, 2008 05:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragojustineApparently I only like weddings when they are socially subversive.
Except that is completely and totally the wrong word since the entire point is to become NOT subversive anymore, but I am wiped today and incapable of phrasing myself correctly.
All the pictures and news reports coming out of California over the last several days make me so, so, so happy. It's just something that's so incredibly important to me (side rant: and whenever I say this, I hear, "you're straight! Why do you care?" and I would just like to BITCH at all the people who say that. Not anybody on my flist obviously. But assholes, everywhere, all the damn time. I care because equality is important and you should FUCKING WELL care too! Ahem. Sorry about that)
I started to be vaguely aware of politics in this country between the 2000 election and September 11th, and to really pay attention right after that. And it was a pretty horrible four years of being convinced that my country was being hijacked by people with these horrible, horrible agendas of jingoistic patriotism and warmongering and theocracy and social repression and destruction of civil liberty- and then all of a sudden the whole shebang in San Fransisco in 2004 just happened and it was the first time I ever thought that I could be truly proud of my country, that I might want to say, 20 or 50 years down the road, "yes, that happened in my lifetime, I was there, I saw that, that was right."
I spent three days watching news videos and looking at photography coming out of San Fransisco then and Massachusetts later, just like I'm doing right now, and it makes me so happy and makes me want to cry- even though I *hate* weddings and always have, because of huge-ass Raised Religious Baggage. But this is so totally different from my infuriated rebellion against "all you should want to do is find a nice husband!"- this is people who WANT this and are finally, finally, getting this acknowledgment. And I crave the ability to live in a world where I can say "that's not what I want" and have it not be weird and unfeminine and pathetic- and I crave *just as much* the ability to live in a world where two other people of whatever genders can say "this is what we want" and have that respected just as much.
And anyone who tries to say "that's wrong" or "that's unnatural" or "man and a woman!" or "tradition!" or "respect my religion!" or "but how will I explain it to my kids? Think of the children!" or any such TOTAL CRAP is contributing to making this country LESS the type of country I want to live in- just as surely as if they were trying to control who I can sleep with on what terms, or what medical decisions I can make about my body- It's THAT important, and anybody who knows me knows that counts as pretty damn important- and I have no fucking patience for anybody who can look at this and see anything other than unqualified good- than some part of this screwed-up country doing something right.
Plus, did you hear? The first couple to get (re)married was Phyllis Lyons and Del Martin. Which, how wonderful! Oh, and George Takei is getting married in September! George Takei always has been and always will be pure awesome and I'm so happy for him.
In 2004 I, like hundreds of people around the country, called up flower places near the courthouse and ordered a bouquet of flowers sent to the first couple in line who didn't have any. (I googled for it, and discovered there was a documentary made about that. Huh.) I really really really kind of want to do that again now, except that I have no money.
The only other thing that has made me even close to as proud of my country is the nomination of Obama. Which... is not quite the same, because it's symbolic, in that I'm not sure how his presidency would be substantively different from a presidency by a white man of the same skills and opinions. Rhetorically different on both sides of the aisle, obviously. But maybe discounting the symbolism is bad of me, in that it really is that important. But I honestly don't know how much "the President of America is a girl like me!" would have mattered to me at all, even when I was a little kid. Except, maybe (definitely) I am weird and I don't generalize. Or race is very different from gender. Or I should shut the hell up and listen before this idiotic white girl gets herself in trouble talking about race on the internet (ya think?). I'm just saying it's the same kind of feeling for me, but it doesn't hold a candle to seeing pictures of hundreds of people in line finally able to marry the person they love and how fucking AWESOME is THAT?
That embarrassing outburst of emotion was at least half caused by PMS, plus the frustration of living in Texas surrounded by trucks with McCain bumper stickers. Or at least, the overuse of italics was. Pay me no mind, I'll be calm and rational again in two days.
Other random awesomeness, related to fandom: I googled for that SGA story, "take clothes off as directed," and stumbled on this: I'm In Ur Bookmarks, Stealin' Ur Tags!: Closed Communities and Their Influence On Consistent Vocabularies In User Developed Folksonomies. (pdf warning, html here) Which is really totally awesome, in a "fandom is so sociologically fascinating" kind of way, even I could have *told* her all those things about consistent community vocabularies.
Except that is completely and totally the wrong word since the entire point is to become NOT subversive anymore, but I am wiped today and incapable of phrasing myself correctly.
All the pictures and news reports coming out of California over the last several days make me so, so, so happy. It's just something that's so incredibly important to me (side rant: and whenever I say this, I hear, "you're straight! Why do you care?" and I would just like to BITCH at all the people who say that. Not anybody on my flist obviously. But assholes, everywhere, all the damn time. I care because equality is important and you should FUCKING WELL care too! Ahem. Sorry about that)
I started to be vaguely aware of politics in this country between the 2000 election and September 11th, and to really pay attention right after that. And it was a pretty horrible four years of being convinced that my country was being hijacked by people with these horrible, horrible agendas of jingoistic patriotism and warmongering and theocracy and social repression and destruction of civil liberty- and then all of a sudden the whole shebang in San Fransisco in 2004 just happened and it was the first time I ever thought that I could be truly proud of my country, that I might want to say, 20 or 50 years down the road, "yes, that happened in my lifetime, I was there, I saw that, that was right."
I spent three days watching news videos and looking at photography coming out of San Fransisco then and Massachusetts later, just like I'm doing right now, and it makes me so happy and makes me want to cry- even though I *hate* weddings and always have, because of huge-ass Raised Religious Baggage. But this is so totally different from my infuriated rebellion against "all you should want to do is find a nice husband!"- this is people who WANT this and are finally, finally, getting this acknowledgment. And I crave the ability to live in a world where I can say "that's not what I want" and have it not be weird and unfeminine and pathetic- and I crave *just as much* the ability to live in a world where two other people of whatever genders can say "this is what we want" and have that respected just as much.
And anyone who tries to say "that's wrong" or "that's unnatural" or "man and a woman!" or "tradition!" or "respect my religion!" or "but how will I explain it to my kids? Think of the children!" or any such TOTAL CRAP is contributing to making this country LESS the type of country I want to live in- just as surely as if they were trying to control who I can sleep with on what terms, or what medical decisions I can make about my body- It's THAT important, and anybody who knows me knows that counts as pretty damn important- and I have no fucking patience for anybody who can look at this and see anything other than unqualified good- than some part of this screwed-up country doing something right.
Plus, did you hear? The first couple to get (re)married was Phyllis Lyons and Del Martin. Which, how wonderful! Oh, and George Takei is getting married in September! George Takei always has been and always will be pure awesome and I'm so happy for him.
In 2004 I, like hundreds of people around the country, called up flower places near the courthouse and ordered a bouquet of flowers sent to the first couple in line who didn't have any. (I googled for it, and discovered there was a documentary made about that. Huh.) I really really really kind of want to do that again now, except that I have no money.
The only other thing that has made me even close to as proud of my country is the nomination of Obama. Which... is not quite the same, because it's symbolic, in that I'm not sure how his presidency would be substantively different from a presidency by a white man of the same skills and opinions. Rhetorically different on both sides of the aisle, obviously. But maybe discounting the symbolism is bad of me, in that it really is that important. But I honestly don't know how much "the President of America is a girl like me!" would have mattered to me at all, even when I was a little kid. Except, maybe (definitely) I am weird and I don't generalize. Or race is very different from gender. Or I should shut the hell up and listen before this idiotic white girl gets herself in trouble talking about race on the internet (ya think?). I'm just saying it's the same kind of feeling for me, but it doesn't hold a candle to seeing pictures of hundreds of people in line finally able to marry the person they love and how fucking AWESOME is THAT?
That embarrassing outburst of emotion was at least half caused by PMS, plus the frustration of living in Texas surrounded by trucks with McCain bumper stickers. Or at least, the overuse of italics was. Pay me no mind, I'll be calm and rational again in two days.
Other random awesomeness, related to fandom: I googled for that SGA story, "take clothes off as directed," and stumbled on this: I'm In Ur Bookmarks, Stealin' Ur Tags!: Closed Communities and Their Influence On Consistent Vocabularies In User Developed Folksonomies. (pdf warning, html here) Which is really totally awesome, in a "fandom is so sociologically fascinating" kind of way, even I could have *told* her all those things about consistent community vocabularies.