vote now, and damn The Man!

7:25 p.m., 2002-03-16

quote of the day

Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

-- Jacob A. Riis

so I'm half-asleep on the couch last night, waiting for "Temple of Doom" to come on so I can watch the "No time for love, Dr. Jones" scene for the tenth time this month, and I turn on CNN. there are two white talking heads blathering at each other. I hear the word "homosexuality." my thumb pauses and I refrain from flipping the channel.

long maddening interview short-- Randy Ball, some schmuckbucket from the Florida legislature, is trying to convince the interviewer that ANY heterosexual household is a healthier environment for an adopted child than ANY homosexual household, because "as a rule" homosexuals are more dangerous and unstable than heterosexuals-- basically that it's better for a kid to be in an abusive home or an orphanage than live with two homosexual parents. and schmuckbucket Randy Ball (whom you may e-mail here if you want to say hi*) would brook no argument on the subject. even when it was pointed out to him that if all heterosexual households were stable there wouldn't be kids in need of adoption.

so I lay there getting angrier and angrier, thinking, "what a fuckhead," and surmised to myself that a guy with a name like Randy Ball probably has deep-seated childhood trauma to blame for his homophobia. then I changed the channel. it's kind of sad, but this kind of thing is so prevalent in our society that I end up trying to ignore most of it, lest I go nuts.

this evening I got several messages from my queer mailing lists: in connection with the interview, CNN is running a poll on the subject. should gays be allowed to adopt children?

the "no's" are winning, 52% to 48%.

if the "no's" win, Randy Ball is going to think he's right. he's going to think that America is on his side. that is sickening.

please, it doesn't matter if you do it because you love me, because you like queers, hate Republicans, hate government assholes, or just believe that every child deserves a loving and healthy home. go to http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/News/03/14/odonnell.gay.adoption.reut/index.html and vote Yes. I'd love to wipe that smile off of ol' Randy's face.

*If you're wondering what to write, may I suggest either a well-reasoned argument in favor of gay adoption, or, if you haven't the time, ten quick messages in a row containing the legend "It is you who are the ball-lickers!"

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