CITIZEN ALERT v3.292PROP 8

Well with CITIZEN ALERT in its 3rd year a slower year by far for posts as I have been extremely busy, I just wanted to take this time to say, yea, Obama won! Never my first choice for President, but I'm glad he has Biden on board with him and he truly has a gift for pumping people up and inspiring people to change things so I am 100% behind him. And the moment I see him screw up I will be the first to throw the hammer down.

Things are a little crazy in California because of Prop 8 passing. When are people going to recognize that California is one giant RED STATE in disguise. So, here's CITIZEN ALERT's take on all the hoo ha.

First off, I voted No on PROP 8. Second off, I really hate having to vote either way cause I don't like either side's position entirely. I think gay people MUST enjoy the same rights and privileges allotted to everyone by the U.S. Constitution, period. Having said that, I am a HUGE, and I mean HUUUGE, believer in separation of Church and State. HUGE!! And this is where the Prop 8 vote gets messy for me.

California has domestic partnerships (DP) that afford rights to same sex couples like a married heterosexual couple would have although just by the fact that they can list these rights on a page makes me think they forgot a few. The problem with people saying that "gays don't need marriage they have domestic partnerships" is like saying 1) they don't need my drinking fountain they have their own and 2) the Federal Government doesn't recognize the DP. If you're married in California, you're married everywhere you go, not so with a DP. That's not equal guys.

For people, like my bass player, Corey, who think the kids are going to get picked on at school because their parents are gay and we have to "save" the children, well for one, my parents were quite heterosexual Southern Baptists and I don't think anyone in history was more picked on in school than me, so that argument doesn't work. Not to mention the fact that even if you outlaw gay marriage, that doesn't stop them from having kids, but when they split up just like heterosexual couples do, then you've created a giant mess of legal problems and serious strife for the kids.

So, now for the other side. The homosexual community that insists on being "married". WHY?!!!!!!!!!!! REALLY!!?!?!? WHY!?!?!?!!?!? You know I get it as it stands now. Separate but equal, I get it, but seriously WHY?!! The term marriage is a religious term. It has biblical roots. Why would you insist on being "recognized" by a sect of society using their terminology that really really hates you? It's like gay people marching into a church and insisting that the church rewrite the Bible so that it says being gay is okay! They have a right to be idiots; they're not changing anything so why try? It makes it seem like instead of standing up for your rights you are attacking religion.

Here's the way it SHOULD be and I've been saying this for years. EVERY COUPLE should be required to have a civil union recognized by the Federal government. When you go down to City Hall you get a Civil Union license NOT a marriage license. Our government blurred the line between church and state when they put the word MARRIAGE on a government document. Now after you get your civil union license, if you want to get married too, then yea!! I'm thrilled, go do it, go to your church and get married, I'll come and throw rice but the Federal Government SHOULD NOT CARE. It should only recognize civil unions for heterosexuals AND homosexuals. THAT IS EQUAL.

Now, is the federal government going to yank the word marriage off the document? NO! So, then we have to unfortunately fight for homosexuals to be "married". Makes no sense to me, but I will support it because those same rights that married heterosexuals have that are recognized in EVERY state must be the same for EVERY AMERICAN. Doesn't matter that the majority of people voted to give certain Americans more civil rights than other Americans, that's why we have courts to interpret these laws and overturn the ones that are meant to smash into a million pieces everything America is supposed to stand for.

CITIZEN ALERT v2.252SADLY, MY HOMETOWN

This in the news today from my hometown of Arlington, TX.

ARLINGTON, Texas - A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay.

Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to host his service, said his sister, Kathleen Wright. But after his obituary listed his life partner as one of his survivors, she said, it was called off.

"It's a slap in the face. It's like, 'Oh, we're sorry he died, but he's gay so we can't help you,'" she said Friday.

Wright said High Point offered to hold the service for Sinclair because their brother is a janitor there. Sinclair, who served in the first Gulf War, died Monday at age 46 from an infection after surgery to prepare him for a heart transplant.

The church's pastor, the Rev. Gary Simons, said no one knew Sinclair, who was not a church member, was gay until the day before the Thursday service, when staff members putting together his video tribute saw pictures of men "engaging in clear affection, kissing and embracing."

Simons said the church believes homosexuality is a sin, and it would have appeared to endorse that lifestyle if the service had been held there.

"We did decline to host the service — not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle," Simons told The Associated Press. "Had we known it on the day they first spoke about it — yes, we would have declined then. It's not that we didn't love the family." (WHAT?)

Simons said the decision had nothing to do with the obituary. He said the church offered to pay for another site for the service, made the video and provided food for more than 100 relatives and friends.

"Even though we could not condone that lifestyle, we went above and beyond for the family through many acts of love and kindness," Simons said.

Wright called the church's claim about the pictures "a bold-faced lie." She said she provided numerous family pictures of Sinclair, including some with his partner, but said none showed men kissing or hugging.

The 5,000-member High Point Church was founded in 2000 by Simons and his wife, April, whose brother is Joel Osteen, well-known pastor of the 38,000-member Lakewood Church in Houston. Now High Point meets in a 432,000-square-foot facility in Arlington, near Dallas.

Wright said relatives declined the church's offer to hold the service at a community center because they felt it was an inappropriate venue. It ultimately was held at a funeral home, but the cancellation still lingered in some minds, she said.

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