Proposition Hate

Why the fight for equal marriage absolutely must be renewed and continued, and Prop 8 overturned. Honk to Joe.My.God. for publicizing this blogger's story:

Thomas (not his real name) came to live with us on October 13, 2007. Developmentally disabled since birth, Thomas had been essentially abandoned by his father years ago. He’d been living with his mother for the last 15 years in a personal hell he still doesn’t have the skills or even the understanding to describe. From what he’s been able to tell us, she was grotesquely abusive. Instead of merely beating him, she’d make him bring her whatever she was going to beat him with to prolong his terror and humiliation. When she beat him until he bled, she wouldn’t let him clean up the bloodstains on the walls and floor … so he couldn’t escape the reminders of his beatings anywhere he went in the house. When he didn’t make his bed the way she wanted, she made him sleep on the floor next to it. For five years. When a man she was having an affair with committed suicide, she told Thomas she wished he had been the one to kill himself. She clearly had never taken him to a dentist. Or even taught him how to brush his teeth. And while she was constantly dressed in sequins and hats, she dressed him like a retarded, homeless stereotype: pants that were too short, used underwear that was 12 sizes too big and cracked plastic shoes that made him walk with a limp. . . .

As Joe says, you must read the rest of this powerful story.

I worked in child protection for over a decade; I could tell you many more stories like this one. I know just exactly how wonderful all those traditional marriage, family values are . . . . there are a million cases of abuse like this every year, and the vast, overwhelming majority of them are perpetrated by heterosexual family members. You can look it up.

I've also known gay men and lesbian women, couples and singles, who took in these kids and adults that straight society didn't want, cared for them, raised them, loved them - gave them life. And not a shred of legal protection, not an ounce of societal respect for doing all that.

This injustice and inequality has got to stop. Now.