All the world's a stage...
Mar. 4th, 2012 06:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
switch842Hubby and I went out on a double date last night to dinner and a movie. We saw This Means War. It was awesome. It was also completely ridiculous, but it's a movie that is aware of its ridiculousness so that makes it awesome. It was entirely predictable, but still quite funny. There were several places where the whole theater was laughing out loud. Including my husband and he is very picky. So, yeah. Definitely recommend it. 4/5
We've also started watching a Canadian TV series through Netflix - Slings and Arrows. It stars Paul Gross as an actor who takes over as director of a large theater festival when the current director dies. A young Rachel McAdams is one of the costars, too. It's fantastic. Weird and kooky and everything Canadian TV is. I wish we got more Canadian series down here. Seriously, they're fantastic.
I also watched the livestream of "8" last night when we got home. For those that don't know, "8" is a play that was written by Dustin Lance Black that is a dramatic retelling of the trials that led to the repealing of Prop 8 in California. I say "dramatic retelling" because it's highly condensed, but it doesn't seem like it was overly dramatized into, like, a Lifetime Movie of the Week thing, if that makes sense. It's definitely worth watching if you can find the two hours to spare. It's up here on YouTube.
It was really interesting hearing what some of the testimony was and how non-expert some of the experts were on the one side that was for Prop 8 (I forget which side was which....). Like, one of their experts the research he submitted that gay marriage is bad and wrong and detrimental to society, was actually just a series of quotes by other people on the subject and he actually have no opinion of his own. And in a book this same guy had written, he concluded it by saying something like, "The day we allow gay marriage, we will be the most American we have ever been." So, basically the side that was anti-gay marriage, called a pro-gay marriage guy as one of their experts. Nice one.
Now, here's where we might start getting controversial. To me, this whole this is very easily solved by a simple change in language. Because, when you get right down to it, "marriage" as a word and a concept is a religious institution (the sacrament of holy matrimony). And, as we are so fond of saying in this country, the government has no business being involved in anything religious. I agree.
So, here's what we do. State/county governments no longer issue Certificates of Marriage. They issue Certificates of Civil Union. These are the same for everyone - gay and straight. All governmental rights and all that jazz would be as they are now; nothing with that would change. If couples wish, they could then have that government approved union blessed by a church with that sacrament, but no additional rights would be bestowed at that time. So, now, everyone has equal legal rights and we can leave all the religious nutjobs in their own corner!
See? Simple!
(I know it's not. I only wish it was. One day we'll get there. And I really think it's coming soon. YAY!)
We've also started watching a Canadian TV series through Netflix - Slings and Arrows. It stars Paul Gross as an actor who takes over as director of a large theater festival when the current director dies. A young Rachel McAdams is one of the costars, too. It's fantastic. Weird and kooky and everything Canadian TV is. I wish we got more Canadian series down here. Seriously, they're fantastic.
I also watched the livestream of "8" last night when we got home. For those that don't know, "8" is a play that was written by Dustin Lance Black that is a dramatic retelling of the trials that led to the repealing of Prop 8 in California. I say "dramatic retelling" because it's highly condensed, but it doesn't seem like it was overly dramatized into, like, a Lifetime Movie of the Week thing, if that makes sense. It's definitely worth watching if you can find the two hours to spare. It's up here on YouTube.
It was really interesting hearing what some of the testimony was and how non-expert some of the experts were on the one side that was for Prop 8 (I forget which side was which....). Like, one of their experts the research he submitted that gay marriage is bad and wrong and detrimental to society, was actually just a series of quotes by other people on the subject and he actually have no opinion of his own. And in a book this same guy had written, he concluded it by saying something like, "The day we allow gay marriage, we will be the most American we have ever been." So, basically the side that was anti-gay marriage, called a pro-gay marriage guy as one of their experts. Nice one.
Now, here's where we might start getting controversial. To me, this whole this is very easily solved by a simple change in language. Because, when you get right down to it, "marriage" as a word and a concept is a religious institution (the sacrament of holy matrimony). And, as we are so fond of saying in this country, the government has no business being involved in anything religious. I agree.
So, here's what we do. State/county governments no longer issue Certificates of Marriage. They issue Certificates of Civil Union. These are the same for everyone - gay and straight. All governmental rights and all that jazz would be as they are now; nothing with that would change. If couples wish, they could then have that government approved union blessed by a church with that sacrament, but no additional rights would be bestowed at that time. So, now, everyone has equal legal rights and we can leave all the religious nutjobs in their own corner!
See? Simple!
(I know it's not. I only wish it was. One day we'll get there. And I really think it's coming soon. YAY!)
