Yesterday a federal appeals court ruled against California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. The basis of the ruling is that the ban unconstitutionally singles out gays and lesbians for discrimination. One thing that really struck me was an argument made by those in opposition that federal judge Vaughn Walker (now retired) should have stepped aside and let another judge hear the case. Walker is the judge who found Proposition 8 unconstitutional in 2010. After he retired he came out as gay and in a long-term relationship, and so Proposition 8 advocates argued that he should not have heard the case.
Their belief, then is that in order for a group to get civil rights, everybody but the oppressed group gets a vote, but the oppressed people must recuse themselves from the fight for their own civil rights. To paraphrase the brilliant Dr. Deb Burgard, that’s rather like saying that if someone is stepping on your foot in an elevator, the rest of the people in the elevator should be polled to see if the person should stop. It’s even more problematic than that since typically the oppressing group is gaining something from their behavior.
That’s not how civil rights work – no oppressed group has ever won their civil rights by waiting for everyone else to decide to stop oppressing them, treat them with respect, and give them their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It breaks my heart to see fat people who believe that they deserve the shame and stigma that are heaped on us by society, that they deserve to pay more for insurance, to get lower wages than their thin counterparts, an dbe discriminated against in the hiring process. I don’t need polling data to know that I deserve better than that. In fact, I don’t care if 99% of people think I don’t, someone is stepping on my foot and they need to get the hell off, period. If we want to be treated better, we have to be the first ones to stand up and say that we deserve better, and then demand it. You are, of course, under no obligation to become a fat civil rights activist. My point is that you can if you want, you don’t have to wait for anyone’s permission.
Speaking of insurance and workplace benefits (see what I did there with that segue…) I did an article for Texas CEO magazine about the dangers of “carrot and stick” benefits programs that punish employees who are perceived as unhealthy because of their body size. You can check it out here if you would like! (And as always, comments are appreciated because they make me look popular!)
The Georgia Billboard Project is SO CLOSE – We just need 169 people to find $1.00 in the couch cushions and these kids get $5,000 worth of support from the More of Me to Love Match donation. Large billboards, small billboards, bus shelter signs and tons of media to support these kids are all just 169 donors away. If you haven’t donated there is still time to stand up for bullied kids and be part of this. If you have donated then ask a friend to donate. You can link to https://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/enough-is-enough-the-big-fat-money-bomb/ to give them all the details and the donation links, or send them directly to the solidarity dollar site at http://tinyurl.com/solidaritydollar. It would be awesome to get this done tomorrow!
This blog is supported by its readers rather than corporate ads. If you feel that you get value out of the blog, can afford it, and want to support my work and activism, please consider a paid subscription or a one-time contribution. The regular e-mail subscription (available at the top right hand side of this page) is still completely free. Thanks for reading! ~Ragen
Dances With Fat 
There, I sent my solidarity dollar! My problem is that I always read your post right when I get up, when I’m too out of it to be messing around with credit cards : ) Let’s do this people!
I LOVED your article in Texas CEO magazine!! Right on the money, Ragan. I’m totally posting on Facebook. Others need to see this.
~ManDee
http://www.chubbygirlcomics.com
Okay then. I just commented the hell out of that article.
So if the premise being voted on is fundamentally, Biblically wrong and there is an active participant heavily involved in perpetuating this wrong, even on a solely personal level, who happens to be the one to judge ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ on a blanket ruling of this practice being right and just, and the rest of us who do not agree with this wrong get to swallow real hard and grin and bear it? And then we get to pay together for the increased health and insurance costs of the resulting backlash…Nice.
You are free to practice your religion however you want. You are not free to impose your religious beliefs on anyone else.
I don’t know how to respond to this. So I’ll start with what is Biblically wrong shouldn’t matter when making laws. I’ll finish with “Where is the research that says gay marriage increases health and insurance costs?”
Thanks.
Seriously, citation desperately needed for how same-sex marriage alters health insurance costs in a negative way (rather than the predicted positive way – you know, less mental and physical stress from the stigma and financial insecurity).
This is why we have an appeals process; to make sure one person doesn’t make the laws for everyone. I have confidence that our justice system will make the right decision in the end, because discrimination is constitutionally wrong, no matter who it is being perpetrated against. You are perfectly welcome not to participate in anything you feel is “biblically” wrong, but keep your bible out of my underpants.
Religious beliefs have no place in our government. You’re free to do whatever you wish, but don’t expect everyone to conform to your particular religious strictures.
In countries where the Bible substitutes for the Constitution, quite possibly. This is not that country.
Who is this “the rest of us” of whom you speak? It sure as heck isn’t me, who is neither lesbian nor Christian. I don’t CARE if something is “Biblically wrong” and I certainly don’t want to live someplace where the Bible or any other religious text is the law of the land. Rights are not and should not be left to majority opinion.
All of us pay for things we don’t agree with through our taxes. That’s part of living in a society with other people who aren’t exactly like us.
In this country civil rights are not up to a majority vote, or based on what religions do or do not believe to be right in the eyes of their various gods. We also don’t withhold civil rights because of cost concerns. Let’s remember that the bible has been used to justify slavery, segregation, and the denial of marriage between people of different skin colors so we’ve made this mistake already and we’re getting faster at correcting it.
A way that I find it helpful to think about civil rights is that our right to punch ends at the end of someone’s else’s nose, which is to say that we our rights continue until they infringe on someone else’s rights. Gay marriage meets that standard, because living in a world with people whose behavior you disagree with is not actually harming you. Nobody is being forced to marry a same sex partner, no church is being forced to perform gay marriages. People who believe that gay marriage is biblically wrong are no more harmed by gay marriage than people who believe eating pork is biblically wrong are harmed because grocery stores sell ribs. Many people think that what various religions practice is wrong but we don’t (and shouldn’t) have the ability to make religion illegal, even if we’re the majority. We do have the right not to be governed by someone else’s religious beliefs.
~Ragen
The Bible has no place in lawmaking procedure.
If the Bible helps guides your own actions and the way you live your own life, then that’s great. But you do NOT get to use that book as a basis of controlling how other people live THEIR lives.
Individual rights are not decided by committee, and all laws are required to have a rational basis. Period.
“So if the premise being voted on is fundamentally, Biblically wrong and there is an active participant heavily involved in perpetuating this wrong, even on a solely personal level, who happens to be the one to judge ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ on a blanket ruling of this practice being right and just, and the rest of us who do not agree with this wrong get to swallow real hard and grin and bear it?”
Yes! That’s EXACTLY RIGHT!
You seem to be misunderstanding the case anyhow, regardless of your ridiculous notion that America should be under Biblical law.
Firstly, if you read the actual ruling, the judges did NOT rule on whether gay marriage was right or just – they only ruled on the constitutionality of a law that does nothing else except take the NAME of “marriage” away from people who are, in any other way, LEGALLY married. Even with Prop 8 in place, same-sex partners had all the rights of opposite-sex partners but just could not use the word “marriage.” Therefore, Prop 8 was ruled irrational because it does not in any way further California’s interests since no legal statuses were changed; only “social approval” of a word was changed. The judges remained neutral on whether same-sex partners SHOULD marry.
Secondly, the judges commented on Judge Walker’s role in the previous ruling, and said that he should only have been taken off the case if there was reasonable evidence that his ruling was non-rational. They found no mistakes, legally, in his ruling and therefore it is irrelevant what personal stakes he had in the case.
Thirdly, if a judge was for or against same-sex marriage, either way it would be a “conflict of interest” since the judge has a personal opinion about how the outcome “should” go prior to the legal facts being presented. So, that’s why the ruling has to be based on the law. That why there is a judicial system. And that’s what happened here. Just because it doesn’t support your personal opinion does not mean it isn’t the legal outcome.
It is kind of hard to pick through that bit of challenging grammar, but …if I understand, what you are saying is, “because the Bible tells me so.” Is that right?
If that is the case you grin and bear biblical atrocities on a daily basis. Do you buy products from farms that harvest to the edge of their fields? (Lev 19:9)
Where is your outrage over farms that practice polyculture (Don’t plant your fields with two different kinds of seeds Lev 19:19)
“Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” Isaiah 1:17
We are dealing with rights and justice for people RIGHT NOW, are you doing right? Are you seeking justice? Are you encouraging the oppressed? Or are you holding on to one tiny bit of the bible that today, right now has engendered so much hated when pretty much the entire rest of the book tells you to love, love, love your neighbor. How can you do that? How can you hold that hatred in your heart and call yourself a Christian? That is something about Pauline Christianity that I just don’t understand.
love it
Count me in as one of your needed people. Donated. I’ll also pass the link along to a group of people I’m sure will also get a few people to donate as well.
Caught part of Dr.Oz yesterday, with a line up of fat women. Some were proud and happy, others not so much. The object, apparently was to convince ALL the women that “somebody” had wounded them so badly that they were now fat. A few walked out and did not subject themselves to the idiocy. I found myself snarling at both Oz and the smarmy psychiatrist. Then my dog rescued me and took me for a walk, so I didn’t see the end. But I find myself still curious. Was this as bad as I thought it was? Any comments from anybody on this?
Only two words will do. AMEN SISTER!