Marriage on the Rocks

Sad. It really is the only descriptive word necessary for this moment in time.

Maine voters went to the polls yesterday and repealed an enacted law that allowed gays and lesbians to marry. What makes this turn of events particularly difficult to swallow is the fact that my partner and I had talked about getting married there this coming summer (he used to live in Bar Harbor for seven years).

All we want is to be able to quantify our relationship. We already wear rings on our fingers. We believe we are married in God’s eyes (please, if you have differing opinion, don’t roll yours). But our love for each other doesn’t provide us with the benefits our heterosexual friends receive due to their having one single sheet of paper…a marriage certificate. Think about this: Without that sheet of paper I have nothing; no legal standing to keep me in my home or pass along property; no visitation rights or medical decision-making in the event of a catastrophe.

I am saddened that there are still so many people out there who truly believe that marriage is to be reserved for a man and a woman. Their convictions—often based on scripture—drive them to believe that giving homosexuals the opportunity (I don’t want to call it a right) to marry will somehow degrade the sanctity of marriage. It seems to me that a better use of time for marriage activists is to prop up heterosexual marriages, too many of which end in divorce.

I can only shake my head in wonder as to how some people can interpret the union of a loving couple as degrading the sanctity of marriage. In my opinion, it can only enhance.

No matter how you slice it, those defending the sanctity of marriage and protecting the status quo are guilty of discrimination. Definitely, NOT something the Jesus would do.

Seeing Red in a Pink World

We’ve barely moved into October and I am already feeling the urge to puke pink. No, I’m not about to purge Pepto-Bismol. My revulsion is created by something that has become equally as distasteful…Breast Cancer Awareness Month. My beef isn’t with breast cancer. It is a disease that is truly horrendous and needs to be eradicated.

No, my beef is with the omnipresent marketing of the disease.

Thanks to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the color pink is plastered everywhere and on everything. What started with a simple pink ribbon has blossomed into endemic proportions. We now have pink laptops (Sony), pink toasters (Dualit), pink yogurt lids (Yoplait), and pink Visa cards; we have pink sneakers (New Balance), pink water pitchers (Vitapur), pink mixers (Kitchen Aid), and pink garden tools (Apollo). The list of pink products continues on ad nauseum.

The last straw for me came today with NFL players wearing pink gloves and cleats. It just went too far.

Cancer touches everyone at some point in their lives.

Mine has been touched over and over again:

-My father died from Bladder cancer
-My paternal grandfather had prostate cancer
-My mother had melanoma
-My maternal grandmother had lymphoma
-My maternal aunt had bone cancer
-My brother has had both prostate cancer and skin cancer
-My MALE cousin has had breast cancer

With this history, it is only a matter of time before cancer touches me.

What angers me is that this excellent marketing campaign has relegated other cancers to the sidelines. It has marginalized other cancer patients who might be coming in for physical treatment or emotional health and are bombarded with the hardly subliminal message during October at hospitals, doctor’s offices, and social service agencies around the country that breast cancer matters MORE. It has made competition for the remaining dollars (for research, for care) fierce.

ALL cancers are serious conditions, but even they are not the deadliest.

At last tabulation, heart disease remains the largest killer in America (even among women). With that in mind…does anyone know when National Heart Month is in America?

I didn’t think so.