And a picture from yesterday’s Atlanta rally in support of marriage equality…
This young girl was having a blast, so I asked the lady she was with if I could take the photo and post it here.
Best sign at the rally: “I can see inequality from my house!”
Runner up: “Jesus had two daddies.”
Update: Commenter Don’s pictures from the DC rally! Don also notes a sign that was heartbreaking: “MARRIED 8/1/08 — UNMARRIED 11/4/08”
Update II: Fort Lauderdale rally, via Incertus!
Atanarjuat
Ashton Kutcher missed an opportunity to say, "California, you just got punk’d!"
– Country First.
Michael D.
@Atanarjuat: I will agree with you. By passing that proposition, California certainly did get punk’d. Thanks for your support of marriage equality!!
Mike
Pre-acting, Kutcher got an engineering degree, which ain’t easy anywhere. Ben Affleck is still far and away the brightest celebrity guest on Maher.
smiley
I liked what Meacham said too. Imagine, if you will, tolerant religion…
Kallisti
I would suggest that "Superstar" girl be the face of gay marriage tolerance, but then I remember that Malkin would declare her "fair game".
Michael D.
“Superstar” girl has AWESOME countertops!!
Dave_Violence
Wikipedia says, "Kutcher attended the University of Iowa, where he majored in biochemical engineering (but did not receive a degree), motivated by the desire to find a cure for his brother’s heart ailment.[3] At the University of Iowa, Kutcher was kicked out of his apartment for being too "noisy" and "wild"."
Which those of us with engineering degrees (like myself) must remind others that if you don’t have the degree…
Anyway, didn’t the people speak in California?
If so, the only way to settle this issue is through an amendment to the US constitution. I wonder how that will go?
John D
@Dave_Violence:
Why on earth would you think that?
States are not allowed to — even by state constitutional amendment — abrogate the rights of citizens enumerated in the US Constitution. We already have a perfectly good Amendment XIV in place, thank you very much, and do not need another.
Don
My pictures from the DC rally are here. One sign I did not get a picture of – because it made me cry and disappeared from view before I composed myself – simply said
MARRIED 8/1/08
UNMARRIED 11/4/08
Bob In Pacifica
The best sign reported in SF: "We Can’t All Marry Liza Minelli".
Seriously.
RS
I saw Bill Maher’s show the other night and was impressed by Kutcher’s ablility to think on his feet as well as his grasp of current events. Frankly, I didn’t expect much, as other celebrity guests, including Afflek, tend to deliver little to the discussion. Kutcher was probably the brightest bulb there Friday night.
Michael D.
@Don: Don — Thank you for those amazing pictures!! Curious, are you gay or a straight ally?
I hope you don’t mind that I added the link to the pictures in the post. Awesome!
Yesterday, my partner and I attend a rally in support of marriage equality. It was also my birthday. It was a great birthday!
Shygetz
You forget, the people in California can speak again. And again…and again, etc. If it’s not reversed in the courts, it will be reversed by public initiative eventually, not only in California but everywhere in America (although my Southern home will probably replay it’s 1960’s anti-Civil Rights history). The demographics clearly show that the anti-homosexual bigots are on the wrong side of history; the only question is how long will homo’s civil rights be trampled.
Brian J
I’d like to make some sort of snarky comment, but I’ve got nothing. Seeing this is just sad.
Michael D.
@Shygetz:
Damned right! Time heals everything. I know Gavin Newsom got a lot of heat for this, “but it’s gonna happen, whether you like it or not!!”
J.
Ashton Kutcher, not just a pretty face. Hey, any guy who marries a much older woman (though it is Demi Moore) is okay by me.
I also thought Meacham made a very compelling argument, pointing out some (many?) of the problems of making private, personal issues into religious issues.
Michael D.
@J.: Andrew Sullivan has made this argument for decades.
robertdsc
Not only is she the most colossal failure in American political history, she’s now an Internet Tradition. You betcha.
Speaking for my own self, I found many of the pics from the nationwide protests to be very heartening. As Sully likes to say, Know Hope. I do.
alec
Are you saying that Ashton Kutcher is my gay lesbian grandmother? Cuz if he is….
Incertus
Here’s some photos from the Fort Lauderdale rally. It was really nice, especially since there was a concerted effort to heal the rift between gays and people of color. One of the best chants was "black, white, gay, straight, we will not discriminate."
Incertus
@Dave_Violence:
It seems pretty clear from that comment that you have no concept of the term "tyranny of the majority." You might want to look it up, since pretty much any person can be dumped into a minority position if you slice the demographic thin enough. Would you want your right to do something decided by a group of voters who’ve been socialized for millennia to look at that action as immoral?
AkaDad
I’d laminate it.
passerby
When I see young panelists from the entertainment industry on Real Time, I often worry that their viewpoints will be overshadowed by the authors, journalists, politicians, and academias that Bill has on the show.
I was pleasantly surprised by Kutcher’s pragmatism, and, that he was able to articulate it assertively and with passion.
Shame on me. Until now, I had viewed him as Demi’s boy toy who was just a shallow, Hollywood, pretty face.
No mas.
He rocked that panel…and me:
"Stop sending stuff to Mars!"
passerby
…and the point the Kutcher made on the show:
Why is it EVEN on a ballot?!?
[Blockquote fail. adding to Incertus’s point]
Paragon Park
I didn’t see the show, just the clip above, but are people actually praising THAT as intelligent and articulate? I see a guy stammering incoherently and then finally spitting out an incomprehensible argument that, I guess, means he’s mad and thinks it is unconstitutuional for states to regulate marriage. I’m sorry if I’m not impressed, but we are in big trouble if we are offering people like that as the spokesmen for anything of consequence.
If we need Hollywood pretty faces to drum up support, let’s just give them signs (prerferably written by someone else) and tell them to pose for pictures. It’s rather embaraassing listening to them speak.
Jennifer
I’m just wondering if I’m the only person here who saw that exchange between Kutcher and Dan Savage and knew what it was all about.
passerby
@ Jennifer
What was that all about? Savage was sniping in a catty way.
How gay! was that???
Charity
Kutcher has come out with some really interesting things in other interviews. I suspect there’s more going on there than just a pretty face. And anyone who marries a much older woman and takes on step-parenting 3 teenagers — the daughters of BRUCE WILLIS — has some substance.
I can almost forgive him those goofy Nikon ads. (And at least he’s pimpin’ the right brand. ;) )
Loneoak
I haven’t seen the Kutcher/Savage exchange on Real Time yet, but there was like a whole year back when Kutcher was pretty unknown and only on 70’s Show that Savage made repeated jokes in his column about wanting to cum on Kutcher’s face. And people wrote in saying "Ashton who?" And Dan just said "Oh, you’ll know him when he gets famous because you will all want to cum on his face too!" Dan Savage is a very prescient, and naughty, man.
Onihanzo
That video cracks me up. Not for anything Kutcher stated but for Jon Meachem, a capital nitwit who practically wets himself with delight remembering Reagan and the conservative zenith, tacking to the center-left argument regarding gay marriage.
The man would sell out that position in a New York minute.
Jennifer
passerby – Savage wrote in his column "Savage Love" a few years ago about how he’d like to splooge all over Ashton Kutcher’s face. The topic recurred at least once in the ensuing weeks as a reader wrote in and asked him what that was all about. Savage’s response was to the effect that yes, splooging in someone’s face is a degrading act and what made the idea of it so hot is that if you’re with someone as hot as Ashton Kutcher and they’re game for having you splooge in their face, it’s like they are so into you as to be your love slave and up for whatever turns you on, or something to that effect.
As soon as Maher announced that both Kutcher and Savage would be on the show, I thought, "uh-oh, hopefully Ashton isn’t aware of that column." Obviously, he was.
Jennifer
The column I was referring to can be found here, if anyone is interested in following up on this Savage/Kutcher thing.
Comrade Nikolita
I don’t like Ashton Kutcher, at all… but now I have some respect for him. Even if his arguement didn’t sound as complicated or well articulated as the other guy’s, he still made a couple of very basic points which I agree with completely.
Don
Michael – I’m straight, though my closest friend is lesbian (and in California) and my brother is gay (and in Florida). So while I don’t have a dog in the fight directly, it touches me pretty personally.
gocart mozart
If these people were really against gay sex, wouldn’t they be strongly in favor of gay marriage? In my experience, marriage tends to to drastically reduce the amount of sex one receives.
J.
@Michael D.: Thanks! (Guess I’m a little behind the times — or Time. ; )
John Spragge
Cliff’s notes for the wingnuts who don’t get it– if you can put this on the ballot, you can put Sharia law on the ballot.
Mako
"It’s on the constitution!"
Is he suggesting that separation of church and state is in the constitution? Cuz, you know, it isn’t.
LanceThruster
A little while ago I was watching the repeat of Maher’s show with my father in the room, and asked him how he voted on the CA propositions (we don’t discuss politics much because it was the cause of a family dust up awhile back after the 2004 elections). I was mostly curious about 8 but asked about some of the othe props first. We saw things pretty much alike on most thing but when I asked about 8 he said he voted yes. Like I said, there’s a little tension over politics because his girlfriend (he’s a widower) is a GOP true believer and whenever family gathers for my birthday in November, recent elections have always been a topic of conversation (mine at least). I’ve always thought of my dad as a reasonably loving and tolerant individual and he’s never been much in the way of church going (though he sent us kids to a Catholic grade school) and has no problem with my atheism though my sister is a bible believer (and votes Republican too). Sometimes I think he is voting with his dick to make his gal pal happy (the way guys would pretend to be into causes in the 60’s to get chicks) but I guess there’s many things I don’t know about his core values. I also know that his buddies in the Elks Lodge he recently joined are pretty conservative (I had to ask him to stop sending me emails of their Reich Wing bullshit – like the Obama birth certificate "scandal", and other missives sucking the choad of St. Ronnie)
More surprising to me than that though, is two female friends who I’d consider at least Democrats if not actually liberally-minded (one even asks me how she should vote and I fill in her sample ballot with my recomendations) said they voted yes too . Both have/had many gay friends, don’t get their nose out of joint for other social taboos (cohabitation, rec drugs, etc.) regardless of their own personal choices but still somewhat sheepishly admitted that they voted yes (they didn’t want any flack for their vote, but they were adamant about their choice). Both have been divorced at least once, one is black, and one I was a coworker with before we wound up at the same employer (long time friend).
All I can think of is that they feel gay marriage is a sign that we have become overly permissive as a society (based on some of the other things they’ve said). They are fine with civil unions. It seems as if somehow losing "traditional" marriage means that all bets are off in regards society as they recognize it. I think it’s an attitude that this would open the door to other changes that they would be uncomfortable with. They’re both about 10 years older than me (I’m 50) and I guess they’re pretty much just set in their ways. Gay marriage is apparently just too "radical" for the world they grew up in.
I bring this up only to offer a little perspective for those votes Prop 8 got that were from people without a clearly recognizable agenda, but those that pretty much went with their gut feelings because they find gay marriage "icky" and that no one should have to vote for icky.
I’m beginning to believe those who’ve said that the old attitudes, by and large, will have to die off (as younger adults are less polarized over gay issues on the whole).
Thursday
When it went through here (Soviet Canuckistan), one "pretty face" named George Strombolopolis noted:
"What people against gay marriage don’t understand is that – it’s over. In ten years, that age group most strongly opposed will have died off, and the young people – those most in favour of it – will still be voting. It’s over now, or it’s over in a few years; but it’s over."
We got equal marriage through the courts first, then the governments fell in line. Here’s the advantage of the rule of law rather than a simple rule by majority: the law comes first, and includes everyone. If you want to change that law to exclude some from it, you’ll have to change the government first, then change the law and have a compelling reason for doing so.
A much more difficult process, thankfully.
Glenn Fayard
I should love Ashton Kutcher? Man, Fuck Ashton Kutcher!