Retaliation

The following is the text of an e-mail that I just sent to Dan Savage, columnist and author of Savage Love. I believe it's fairly self-explanatory. I'm eager to see what, if anything, he thinks.



Mr. Savage,

I'm writing to you, not with a love or sex related problem, but because I've just been struck by an idea that I don't really have the resources or influence to pursue. Here it is: a proposition to be placed on the next California ballot amending their constitution to state that any and all marriages performed by the Mormon Church will not be recognized as legal in the State of California, in perpetuity, retroactive to the beginning of time.

The idea being not so much to actually pass Proposition 69 (or whatever number it gets) as to demonstrate that no one is magically defended from discrimination once we start using state constitutions as the Civil Rights Bouncer, or Civil Rights Doorman or whatever. I did some checking (on Wikipedia, so consider these numbers estimates) and it seems that the mainline Mormon Church claims 13 million members worldwide, with 40-45% of those members in the United States. Say 6 million or so. That's 2% of the population nationwide. The number for California is not greater than 5%. And these are the people that want to unloose the dogs of war and start persecuting minority groups?

I couldn't find any solid (not even wikipedia solid) numbers for California's gay population, but the estimates for the country as a whole range from 1% to 10% with most sources with no axe to grind either way splittting the difference at 5%. I find it hard to believe that California's gay population isn't higher as a percentage then that of the nation at large, but let's go with 5%. So, the Mormon Church decided to take away the rights of a group that almost certainly outnumbers their entire California membership.

I envision an ad campaign taking a tone of gentle irony/mockery. "Who made the Mormons experts on marriage between a man and a woman? Aren't most mormon marriages between a man and at least three women? Why should we take their marriages seriously, California? Vote yes on Prop 69!" Or an ad "revealing" the next mormon proposition. Proposition 6, which defines marriage as between a man and up to five women. Or heck why not go nuts and have a whole list of wacky discriminatory amendments? Proposition 12 which defines Native Americans as a tasty source of good nutrition. Proposition 19 which defines women as "cooks and homemakers". A commercial saying something along the lines of "Hey, California, you've already voted for discrimination once! Fair's, fair! Time to discriminate against another minority group." The tagline for the campaign as a whole to be "Do Unto Others..."

Anyway, that was my idea, and then my ideas about my idea. Thought I'd share them with you because I respect your opinion, and you have a fairly large, progressive and influential audience, if you choose to use it. Thanks for your time.


James Jordan Halsey