Follow Up No Follow Up

There's nothing like feeling politically empowered and vindicated for all of ten seconds, and then feeling like you've rounded a false corner unto another brick wall. Thanks to everyone who read and reposted and e-mailed back and gave approbation (and in at least one case, disapprobation) to the open letter. It got sent to a couple newspaper editors and the Yes on 8 campaign itself as well. And there it sits. The law is still in the books (actually, I don't really know how that works- is it a "Law Elect" until January 20th? Does it have to go through these legal challenges first? Anyone in state government out there want to clue me in). People have still been disenfranchised. A moral minority has still had their way with democracy and spit her out the back alley.

I'm not smart enough or politically active enough or connected enough to know what to do next. I go to work . I sit in traffic. I come home and read a few newspapers online. I check campaign sites. I google stuff. I don't really know the status of these lawsuits on a day-to-day basis. I'm not really a good enough researcher to know how to find that out. Maybe if I had another day off (besides Wednesday, when I barely got caught up on e-mail and rehabilitating my sorry drum chops), I could learn that stuff. Maybe someone reading this is more closely connected to the cases (I understand there are several filings) and will chime in.

I keep thinking about how to take the law on, on its own terms. Maybe it's a lost cause to challenge with rights of same-sex couples, because that still fits too neatly into its world-view. What about a biological hermaphrodite and a post-op M2F tranny applying for two marriage licenses: one in which the hermaphrodite is the man and the tranny is the woman, and then vice-versa, and then try to take that all the way to the high court. Or maybe a boycott of marriage licenses by straight couples- at $50 a pop to the tune of hundreds of thousands of weddings annually, that would certainly impact the state budget. How 'bout it folks- join me and Cori in not getting "married" this year and next or until this wrong law is righted. You can still have the party, just don't sign the state's contract.

Maybe that's too facile as well. We're really struggling with this ourselves. Even if we turn down the privilege of getting married, it's still our privilege to turn down. We'd still be covered by common law in another few years. We could probably just flash our rings in a hospital and start barking shit at the nurses and they'd just assume we were married and not get up in our face. I guess the crux of what I'm trying to say is that if I don't think about this problem, it's stops being problematic for me, personally, at all. The inertia of hegemonic culture takes over, and I get sucked right in. But like everything in hegemony, if you do think about it, it's fucking maddening.