Charlize Theron is so pro-gay rights, she’s comparing anti-gay-marriage laws and initiatives to apartheid. Charlize, as many know, was born and raised in South Africa during the “Grand Apartheid”, the last gasp of the white, colonial power’s institutionalized and codified racism and bigotry on the “native” population.
This isn’t the first time Charlize has spoken out about gays rights in general, or gay marriage rights in particular. She’s one of the most outspoken celebrities speaking out about gay rights, but this is the furthest I’ve ever seen her go. Charlize says “I don’t like living in an elitist world, it bothers me. I don’t want to be part of an elitist sexual preference. Maybe it’s because I come from a country where I lived under apartheid. This is a form of apartheid and I don’t want to be a part of that.” She might have a point:
South African-born actress Charlize Theron calls US marriage laws “a form of apartheid”. The Oscar winner and Dior model said, “I don’t like living in an elitist world, it bothers me. I don’t want to be part of an elitist sexual preference. Maybe it’s because I come from a country where I lived under apartheid. This is a form of apartheid and I don’t want to be a part of that.”
Theron was referring to the “Grand Apartheid” laws in her native country, which segregated whites and non-whites. The laws prevented non-whites from marrying whites or holding white jobs. Harsh criminal penalties were imposed on civil protestors of the apartheid laws, with thousands of people tortured, sentenced to death, or banished.
The most famous face of apartheid is Nelson Mandela, who received a life sentence for treason but was finally freed in 1990, and went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
Theron has been dating super-hot boyfriend Stuart Townsend for years, and the couple have said in the past that they refused to get married until same-sex marriage was legal in the United States.
‘It’s not the reason I’m not getting married but it’s maybe a part of it,” Theron said. “My ability to get married is a piece of me that I wish I could give to somebody who it would mean so much to. We should all have the chance. It’s just so caveman, I can’t believe we’re still talking about it.’
[From The San Francisco Gay & Lesbian Examiner
I really wonder what Nelson Mandela would think of this – comparing his struggle to the gay marriage rights struggle. I support gay marriage rights, but looking at the issue from a purely political stance, I could see how Charlize’s statements could be taken the wrong way, and could end up bothering many people. However, those same people who will be bothered are the same people who are basically telling gays and lesbians that they are less than a heterosexual person, that they don’t deserve the same rights and privileges. You tell people to sit at the back of the bus long enough, someone’s going to call you on it.
Here’s Charlize Theron at the Christian Dior show during Paris Fashion Week on March 6th. Images thanks to WENN.com .
You know, I never thought of it that way but I have to say she’s got a good point.
I’m sort of alarmed over how badly this will blow up in her face though….
Hear Hear!
I completely agree with her. Discrimination is discrimination. Just like we don’t choose our skin color, we do not choose who we love.
Do you really think that a person would wake up one day and go “You know what? I would love to be persecuted and be treated as a second class citizen” No. There is no choice and the fact of the matter is, is there should be no issue with it either. Love is love the world around. For the idiots who I anticipate might compare this to bestiality or 50 year old men marrying 8 year old girls, get off it, it’s not the same thing. Two consenting adults does not equal a donkey, a pervert and a young girl.
*steps down* These things get me so heated because I see how much it pains all my friends and it’s unfair and I love Charlize for speaking up against it. (I love all the people who’ve spoken out against it, and hope and pray that they continue to do so)
I don’t see why this will blow up in her face because what she says is essentially true. Like in South Africa, one anti-African line of sentiment was that the African population was communist — and this in a country where the African population, the 90% majority of people were FORBIDDEN by law to own private property! And here in the US folks criticize gay people as being a threat to family when they are being FORBIDDEN by law to have their own families. It just doesn’t make any sense, and any time laws are that arbitrary, you better look out. The next arbitrary law might be against YOU.
I’m sure she meant it in the segregation sense, the being treated separately. The two issues, though very different on a number of levels, have separateness and discrimination in common, neither of which has any place in any civilised society in 2009.
Sorry, I dont’ see it. Saying that two men cannot be married is not the same as institutionalized racism. It makes a mockery of both things when you say they are essentially the same.
Gay men and women may or may not have a desire to be married at any point in their lives. If you are black, you are black. That’s it. You don’t have the option of waking up one day and not appearing to the rest of the world as a black person.
We don’t have hetero only water fountains or lunch counters. Gay men and women are not being told to sit at the back of the bus. While these things may exist figuratively it is a very important disctinction from reality.
I predict one big crap storm aheard.
Mr F
I don’t think she means that mistreatment of non-whites under apartheid is the exact same thing as not allowing gays to get married.
But the underlying principle of legislating against a section of society and denying them a civil right which is ordinarily available to everyone else, solely based on one aspect of difference (colour/race/sexuality) is fundamentally shared in both instances.
Gay people might not be forced to sit separately from heterosexuals, drink or shop separately – but just as black people, Asians etc. have been beaten, verbally abused and murdered for the fact that they are who they are, it is also something that happens regularly to gay people – and doubtless both sides have found that the police have often been less than sympathetic to their plight. So perhaps there’s more in common between both “sides” than we assume?
It is discrimination, but in different amounts. Under apartheid black people got worse jobs, educations and were put in prison for protesting. Although gay people can’t marry, which is horribly unfair, it is different.
I’m from South Africa though, so that might change my views on apartheid.
I applaud Charlize statements. As a Californian with gay family members I’ve seen the shaming, shunning, negation, and physical abuse.
Their pain is no less than that of any other.
May I just say…After watching Milk my heart truly breaks for gays/lesbians. I never really knew how hard it was for them & how hard it still is. You love who you love…nobody should be allowed to bash you physically or mentally!
She’s making an analogy. Before Stonewall, it used to be that people could be arrested for simply congregating in a bar together, not for what they were doing, but for who they were. Gays are not only discriminated against, but some people are active gay bashers, men who beat up and in some cases kill gay men (Matthew Shepherd, anyone?) So good on Charlize that she’s outspoken. She’s also one helluva actress (I was blown away by her performance in Monster).
Good on Charlize – I’m afraid this may blow up in her face as bigotry will always exist in the uneducated parts of all society.
HELL NAW!!! I am an African American woman and I hate when people try to attach the gay marriage situation with African Americans! I believe that is why so many of us are mad because you can never compare 400+ years to gay marriage! I do not hate gay people the only issue I have is that stop trying to use our fight for civil rights for yours.
Brown Sugar — remember, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We are are a biracial family and we were illegal not so very many years ago. I have been very struck by how similar the language and the sentiments of anti-gay folks are to the anti-miscegenation folks were. Same tired arguments, same tired attitudes. Whenever anyone suggests anti-marriage amendments to me I just remind them that the laws used to be against my family, too, and I will never see clear to denying any civil rights to anyone for any reason. Rights are rights, and it isn’t a contest to see who has been the most oppressed for the longest. Whenever we threaten others’ rights we’re creating the basis for many, many threats to ourselves.
I am an African-American male and a gay man as well & I continue to be taken at the comparisons of gay rights to the black struggle. Its a means to an end for a lot of them & simply a method to garner sympathy. Before people back Charlize on this they need to read an on-line paper called “The Root”. Most of the gay people that want marriage are white and well-off and Damn anyone who stands in their way–some of these same whites have begun to show their more racist tendencies during this pursuit as well:–to paraphrase one African-american male in California “It was like being at a KKK rally except-they were wearing birkenstocks and abercrombie & Fitch t-shirts instead of white hoods.”
Why can’t everyone just agree that all of these things are wrong. People just like to have a point of comparison. You got the point she was trying to make and she was correct in that. Just because you didn’t appreciate the words she used doesn’t mean it’s not essentially true. EVERYONE should have the same rights, if they do not want to use them that is fine but they should all have it.
I don’t think her remark was a smart choice of words.
By Chalize was the sharpest bleached blond- fake tan- nose job in the Hollywood drawer.
I agree, Mairead. I think Charlize was making an analogy of the legal arguments used in S. Africa vs. the legal arguments used in America. She’s basically saying that the law has to treat every person the same… which I happen to agree with.
@Texas Mom
You dont get it, I NEVER said gay people should not marry. I said stop trying to attach their civil rights with our civil right. Just like ME commented above their has never been I bathroom for gay people only, or gay people did not have to sit in the back of the bus, not have the right to vote, could not eat at the white only resturants. Has a gay person been lynched just for looking at a white woman? Has a gay person been stripped from there country, beaten, raped, enslaved? Has a gay person had their children ripped from their arms and never seen again? Has a gay person been told not to read or they would die? Has a gay person be pulled over by the cops for being gay?
The U.S. is such a contradiction, “apparently” forward thinking, etc. but really is full of religious zealots stuck in a time warp with their outdated views on marriage. Other countries laugh at such backward behaviour where tax paying citizens are not all treated equal. But of course this type of “segregation” has happened before hasn’t it.
I think what Charlize said is awesome!
Prejudice and holding people back because they are gay is just as horrendous as racism. Both hurt and ruin lives and both are all about trying to make people feel less-than. And both are absolutely evil bullshit.
And Brown Sugar, gay people have been beaten to death for being gay! They have suffered violence for years! How can you be unaware of *gay bashing*? Insane evil homophobes who go out specifically looking to hurt gay people. It’s been on the news, you know.
Brown Sugar, when you play ‘my persecution was worse than yours’, nobody wins.
I’m black and gay and I can’t believe that there are still people like mE calling homosexuality a choice. Yeah, I figured being black wasn’t hard enough so I wanted the added challenge of being gay to make my childhood more fun. Good times.
Charlize is just try to be relevant again by going “political” and mixing 2 things that are different so that the anger of some people might bring her some attention.
Nobody should be offended by her.
Spot on Mairead! I applaud Charlize for speaking out on this issue.
Thanks Neelyo. It’s astonishing that people think sexual orientation is a choice. mE, when did you “decide” to be straight? (rhetorical)
I know that it’s easy for me to talk, being neither, black, gay, African American or a black South African (which is the context Charlize was placing her beliefs in, btw). But I don’t see how pointing out how the methods used to say that one section of society is not worthy of having the same privileges (if you don’t see marriage as a right) as everyone else is similar to those used to historically demonise and alienate another section of society, devalues the first cause and nullifies the second cause.
And everyone knows as well as I do that gay people were among the slaves in every historic culture and time period that had slavey; that rape is endemic everywhere and yes people have been gassed along with gypsies and Jews and hung-drawn-and-quartered or burned alive for being gay.
And Oscar Wilde was basically banned from ever seeing his children again. I have heard David Norris, a Wildean scholar state, that after the trial, the baliffs, thanks to that prince among men the Marquis of Shrewsbury, in order to make restitution for Wilde’s crimes even took the children’s toys and sold them.
It’s not so very long ago that poor men and women all over the world were not deemed worthy of the right to vote, because they were poor. And because they were poor and women, they obviously didn’t have the moral character or intelligence to be able to make decisions for themselves. Women until not so long ago were seen as property of their families in general- the only things they could definitely claim as their own was their jewellery, no matter how many businesses they ran. And if a male member of the family thought a woman was rising above her station, then it was scarily easily to commit her to an insane asylum
(this happened even up to the 1950s in Britain and Ireland!)
I’m not saying any of this to deny the evils perpretrated by the systems of slavery in the Carribean and in the Americas – just as I wouldn’t use it to deny the systems of indentured servitude that existed into the 20th century by countries such as China etc (they formed a civillian support corps to the Allied forces in World War I) –
but to back up my earlier point and to say that allowing oneself to be distracted from the principle of having a better society for ALL by engaging in a “We had it worse off than you”, means that real acts of violence and bigotry will never be punished and stamped out like they should.
@Neelyo and Mairead – beautifully said.
Kaiser – re your “back of the bus” comment. Not only does the gay marriage issue pale in comparison to segregation the US, even US segregation was nothing compared to segregation. Even under segregation, there were wealthy black Americans in mansions. Apartheid was far more dehumanizing. Even wealthy black SA’ns lived in the gutter. They were beaten and jailed for no reason. Gay marriage is NOTHING compared to that.
i think she was stating that her experience with segregation has caused her to be hypersensitive about civil rights issues more than she was suggesting any ethical comparison between the two…
you can tell how disdainful people are toward a social sector by how often references to that social sector are used as insults… for instance, derogatory names for gays and women (and especially women’s genitalia) are used to conote all kinds of deficiencies in character… well, it’s certainly not the ONLY indicator, but i think it’s a strong one…
I totally agree with her and I think she’s brave to make such a bold statement. She is awesome.
Thank you Lala!
It really saddens me to read that so many people don’t understand the depth of apartheid and that it was not just about segregation.
I’m an African American woman, born and raised, and just a few months ago I had a young white South African woman, born and raised, complain to me. She is upset because now that apartheid is over, she and her friends are no longer guaranteed the best jobs. Honestly, I am not making this up. (I wish I were.)
Just like Charlize Theron, this woman just seemed not to understand the depth of pain and struggle for blacks in S.A. that was apartheid .
I will never see gays not being able to marry in the same vein. It just doesn’t compare and people should stop trying to compare. Just say you want gays to have the right to marry. Period.
“Maybe it’s because I come from a country where I lived under apartheid.”
Um, bitch say what?
You didn’t live under apartheid. You lived in a place that implemented it, but not on your person. You weren’t treated like crap, banned from setting foot on the good beaches and verbally assaulted in front of people. You were white, blond and blue-eyed. Quintessentially what they loved down there.
My family and I moved to Nigeria form South Africa when I was 10 and till this day, my mom stills says it’s the best decision she’s made.
Hugs for Neelyo!
Listen. I think a lot of people are missing the point here.
It isn’t about mine trumps yours, it’s about fundamental human rights that all people should receive.
Have any of you been keeping up with the news? Carl Joseph Walker Hoover ring a bell? Cuz that’s an 11 year old boy who committed suicide because of gay-bashing bullying.
Just because it’s “not as bad” does not mean we should dismiss it! I hate that people tell me that when I’m upset about racism being displayed towards me or my friends/family/strangers whatever. Because I didn’t get spat on my rights aren’t as valid? Listen, you allow a “gentler” racism and when does it stop? When is it too much? When lynching DOES occur?
Banding together is the way to conquer this and it’s ignorant to think otherwise.
She is awesome for speaking out on this. It is time the religious creepy freaks get out of the ignaramous dark ages. Gay people are wonderful people and deserve every right they should have !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brown Sugar, I sure didn’t mean to suggest that you should be grouped with gay-bashers or anti-gay marriage folks, and I apologize if that is how my other post came off. I just disagreed with you that apartheid and anti-gay-marriage amendments etc. don’t have any intersection — I see that both are attacks of civil rights for categories of people, and I feel that such attacks represent a danger to everyone. If I stand by when someone strikesother groups down, what do I expect to happen if I fall into a group that is attacked?
BTW, Gays have been attacked in many ways including a LOT of hate crimes, beatings, and killings. Gay people HAVE had their children taken from them for the simple reason of their sexual orientation. They have risked loss of education, jobs, housing etc. if they were outed. Historically, their biggest difference from other minorities was the ability to hide their differences. But if they were found out, the things they suffered were quite bad.
It is possible for all of us to be well-meaning, good people who are reasonably well-informed about the topics but just don’t agree about everything. I was trying to take a civil rights legal angle, not a comparison of the scale, magnitude and/or perniciousness of every oppression in human history. God knows there have been plenty.
@ mE: Right on!
I get what Charlize is saying and I applaud her for it.
How bad was it to be black in old South Africa? This bad: African-American artists weren’t allowed to stay in “white” hotels. And the townships were not fit for any humans to live in, so they couldn’t stay there either!
Fesa would also say I didn’t live “under apartheid” because I’m (classified) white. But I’m quite dark-skinned — other people often queried my “right” to be on the white beach.
I’m with Brown Sugar, Lala, Tori and anyone else who feels this is an unfair comparison. Yes, rights are rights, and I am one hundred percent in favor of gay marriage (and I don’t agree that homosexuality is a choice). However, equating that specific right with the far more degrading reality of government enforced segregation seems unbalanced at best.
it drives me crazy that people seem to think being discriminated against on the basis of race is a far worse crime than being discriminated against on the basis of sexuality. i understand that there is a difference in that statistically the queer community is smaller than the african american community and that we have an advantage in that it’s possible for us to pass as one of the majority. and i understand that there isn’t the same history of slavery which obviously is a huge factor. but the basic premise of denying rights is the same. the fact that people are attacked and killed because of an innate trait is the same. and to pretend like it’s not as big of a deal, i find offensive. not to mention, most of the time that people get all up in arms over the comparison, it’s being used as an analogy – meaning to imply they have similar features but not necessarily that they are the exact same situation.
and we’re not all whiny white-folk who have some unreasonable sense of entitlement. it seems to be forgotten that as much as this is a fight for a “piece of paper”, there are many many rights that go hand in hand with that paper. and marriage isn’t the only thing on the line. prop 8 got all the attention, but similar bills passed in several other states and others still passed bills making it illegal for gay couples to adopt children. for many people, this essentially strips them of their ability to have a family at all. it was only 16 months ago that the federal government passed the “employment non-discrimination act” making it illegal to fire someone on the basis of their orientation, and even that only managed to pass by removing a similar clause protecting transgendered individuals. aprx half of the US states currently have no job protection for LGBT individuals who are not federal employees. all the talk is about marriage, but it’s really a larger issue.
but as far as marriage is concerned, i personally don’t believe in the institution for myself and don’t intend on getting married. i’m also lucky enough to live in canada where gay marriage is a non-issue for the majority of people and if i choose not to marry i can still receive the same rights through common-law. but if i were to move back to the US, i wouldn’t be able to have those rights without a marriage certificate. and the bottom line is, even if i don’t want to marry, in a free state i should have the option.
leigh: Common law partners are recognized in the US, also, and receive the same rights as married couples. Please note that I am in favor of gay marriage, but I feel it’s important that the common law misunderstanding be cleared up.
Since we’re all about posting proof to our statements and what not:
Check this about Common Law Marriage vs. Legal Marriage
http://www.expertlaw.com/library/family_law/common_law.html
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/cyf/commonlaw.htm
http://public.findlaw.com/bookshelf-mdf/mdf-2-4.html
Note that common law marriage isn’t even recognized in most states. Try like 3/4s of the States in the US don’t recognize it. I can go on and on. And to top it all off the language of Common Law Marriage clearly uses the terms “Husband” and “Wife” read: Male and Female unions.
Oh! And also:
Note this article about the difference between civil unions v. gay marriage
http://lesbianlife.about.com/cs/wedding/a/unionvmarriage.htm
OH!
And today is the Day of Silence 🙂 Something that’s meant to bring awareness to the struggle of the gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual community.
So while some may feel that “Oh, it’s not THAT bad. Not apartheid bad” It’s still discrimination, and it’s still hurtful and people have been killed for it among many other things.
killing the unborn is the ultimate discrimination, whe she says that, then I’ll be impressed, she’s just being politically correct, that takes NO COURAGE
Annie: I was simply responding to leigh’s implication (at least as I read it) that common law marriage was not recognized ANYWHERE in the US. I certainly never claimed that it was a country-wide practice, legally speaking. And don’t gay partners qualify for these common law rights in the states where the practice is recognized, despite the “husband” and “wife” terminology? Please note that I’m not claiming this is an acceptable substitute for actual marriage.
Oh no! I’m sorry, I realize that.
I just wanted to make sure others knew the details of that.
And to answer that last question, I’m inclined to say no, though I could double check. My aunt is an attorney specializing in family law.
And I’m inclined to say that, given that it’s only recognized by a very small percentage of states, it is rather safe to say that the US doesn’t recognize it. It wouldn’t 100% correct but in this instance, this is one of those things that’s tricky. Because you also have the law that states that some valid in one state is recognized in another. Yet it only becomes true when that state’s laws recognize the act already. If that made sense. LOL
Is,nt anyone gonna take me on this challenge? come on
Cenrainly not charlize, she’s a WIMP
this is a different annie, no takers on the challenge of the unborn being the most discrimanted class of people?the lack of moral clarity in this nation leaves me breathless.
c’mon people! lets have a real exchange on values. you sure seem to have them when you’re commenting on people’s personal lives, c.mon lets go!
She is an idiot. Where was her voice when apartheid was going on in South Africa? I am sure she was enjoying the privileges of a white person in a segregated south Africa, now that there is no more apartheid she chooses to live in america is it because she will no longer enjoy the benefits of segregation, why not go back and fight for better healthcare for people living with HIV/AIDS in her so-called homeland. On her analogy, it is no analogy when will people stop comparing what black people have gone through for decades with the plight of homosexuals, it is not the same and it will never be the same. Homosexuallity is an abomination to God and the reproach of any nation and no matter how you slice it and make it look pretty it is a disgrace for two men to be buggering each other. Your ass was not made for that and the consequences of buggery medically on the anus is unhealthy on every level. People need to do their research instead of promoting something that is detrimental to human existence. I belief that all people should be treated with respect and dignity but I don’t need to know what you do in your bedroom, its non of my business and quite frankly your sexuality should not define you and for homosexuals thats all that define them and make them complete
“..and quite frankly your sexuality should not define you and for homosexuals thats all that define them and make them complete.”
No, Maxine, that’s what bigots like you choose to see as the defining aspect of gay men, because that’s all your limited intellects can focus on. Nothing more sickening than hatred hiding behind a bible.
For your info, the rest of us non-bigots see gay people as human beings, people just like us, worthy of and entitled to the same rights within law.
Annie: No problem — I should have been more clear. And you made perfect sense. I’d be interested to know the answer, though. I suppose I could look it up, myself, but it’s Saturday morning and I’m too lazy, lol.
Maxine: Please just go crawl back under your rock and let the big kids continue their discussion, OK? Thanks.
thanks codzilla, i actually didn’t realize that common-law was recognized in the states at all, so that’s good to know.
does anyone know if there are any major differences in the rights of common-law and married couples where it is recognized in the states?
Being a mixed race South African myself (black mum, white dad), I’m having a very hard time with this one. I get what Charlize is trying to say, really I do as I support gay marriages myself, but it does somewhat take away from the struggles many black people (myself included for being born by a black woman) had to endure during apartheid.
Although SA remains the ONLY African country that has legalized gay marriages, even politicians that endured the highest degree of apartheid laws have in the past bashed gay people. So, I seriously doubt they would be delighted with the comparison either (as most of them are against gay marriages because of strong traditional beliefs).
Just to name a few ministers that bashed gay people:
Former Deputy Minister of SA and current ANC president, Jacob Zuma (who is most definitely going to be the next SA president) was in the firing line in 2006 when he was quoted as saying that same-sex marriages were a disgrace to the nation and to God. He went on to say that when he was a young man, we would have knocked down any homosexual person he met.
Former Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala- Msimang also came under heavy criticism when she bashed gay people, saying that they were mostly responsible for the high HIV\Aids prevalence rate.
A struggle is a struggle, comparisons just sometimes take away from the gist of a statement. If I said: “Black people in SA didn’t sit at the back of the bus, they weren’t allowed inside the bus to begin with,” that automatically takes away from the struggles by the African-Americans. It makes it seem like we have had it worse, and when it comes to human rights, any injured party (no matter how worse they have had it) deserves consideration.
Codzilla: I’m with ya. Saturday morning and Sunday Morning, not my best time of the day. Hahah. Incoherent til the caffeine flows in.
As for the answer to what I was saying, I’m inclined to say that, for example, since Gay Marriages can occur in Vermont but you go to CA and it’s not recognized that the same might be true for the whole common law marriage business? I dunno. Monday mornings aren’t any better sometimes.
Oh and to the other annie who said c’mon people! lets have a real exchange on values. you sure seem to have them when you’re commenting on people’s personal lives, c.mon lets go! …You’re insane. And I hope no one confuses the two of us.
Sorry. This is offensive. I’m black, and I completely support gay rights. However, the violence done to millions of South Africans is not the equivalent of not being able to get married. And what about gay black people? Gay balck South Africans? Of course, she assumes that all gay people are white.
I find these comparisons insulting to everybody’s experience.
Have you noticed that only the people who know NOTHING about apartheid think that this comparison is logical? They are just white people who can’t stand hearing anything about what black people have experienced. They don’t care about gay rights. They just like the idea of black people being silenced and our experiences marginalized.
Oops it look like I offended a few people with the truth. It does hurt doesn’t it. Sticks and stones
I am all for the rights thing. I just want to think of this. look up Apartheid, then look up segregation, then look up redline in USA and last look up Margery austin turner on the web. Charlize rather refer to the USA who still discriminates against black, hispanics. I think you need to see that since 1994 South Africa was not allowed to prevent anyone the right to own a house in the neighborhood he wanted to live according to what he could afford. Unlike some areas of America, look closer to were you live and stop riding on the word apartheid for your own good. I’m gay and I thank you for the rights of people don’t use it for your own spotlight.
The comments I’m hearing about SA just grinds me. There is always some one who will say only the negative of everything in this world. I take a look at history has every German been victimized by what Hitler did?through press and people all over the world? do you think its getting out of hand that people in SA are being used by this word apartheid. If you keep on and on opening a wound it will never heal.
No need to call a person a bigot and insult their intelligence just because they don’t agree with the belief that homosexuals should have the legal right to marry.
Maxine made some good points (albeit a little too graphcally). Indeed, “…all people should be treated with respect and dignity…”
Although some of the nicest people I have ever known are gay, I agree with the comment: “…but I don’t need to know what you do in your bedroom; it’s none of my business…your sexuality should not [be what] define[s] you [as a person]…”
There are many ways for gays to have all the same legal rights as any spouse or family member or any persons who wish to live together as a couple or family.
Why is a homosexual wedding/ marriage necessary other than to make an “in your face” show directed toward people who believe that marriage between a man and a woman to be the only natural arrangement?
try giving it Hill’s Scientitfiic Diet food i use it with my overweight dog and it works out great!!!