2004-02-13 - 2:42 a.m.

Okay. I'm not going to go on about this, but I am absolutely outraged over the fact that we're still talking about gay marriage.

This should be over and done with. Gay couples should have always been allowed to marry and that's the fucking end of it.

I'm a pretty forgiving person and even when I don't like someone, I do my best to see how that person came to this or that conclusion or made this or that decision.

I want to understand people. I pride myself on being able to understand people.

But to want to deny gay people the right to marry? I cannot understand that.

There is no reason, no reason at all, and I've tried to think of one--I've turned it over and over, no reason that is not one hundred percent derived from hatred.

I haven't felt this horrible about people since high school. I now remember how I felt in high school--how frustrating it is to know that people can be so mean, so bigoted, so ignorant, and that there's no way to change their minds, to educate them, to enlighten them, or to get away from them--that I cannot possibly understand how anyone can be bothered by an issue that shouldn�t be an issue, let alone lost of people--that idiots can get so worked up over something that is absolutely none of their business.

What does gay people marrying each other change? For gay people, it's good, right? Bear with me here. For everyone else in the world? Nothing. It changes nothing. Let me say it again--gay people marrying other gay people changes nothing for people who are not gay. It's not like there's only so much marriage to go around.

If you don't like the Simpsons, even if it's for a stupid reason, I can dismiss it and still be your friend. If you want to make an argument against stem cell research, I can forgive and forget--other countries are curing our diseases for us. If you want to clog up our legal system and jail cells and waste a ton of money ruining the lives of teenagers because they smoked pot, you're an idiot but I can deal with you.

But if you hate a large group of people, and let's not make it nice-nice, we're talking hate or please explain how it isn't, if you hate millions of good people that for whatever reason we still can hate if we want to, if you hate people you don't even know, that you've never even met, that pose no danger to you, that might even be be members of your own goddamn family, then let's call a spade a spade--you hate, and I want nothing to do with you.

Hear me? If you hate people so much that you want to amend our goddamn constitution to keep the people you hate from being happy, to hurt law abiding people not because of a decision they made but because of who they are, to deny people you don't know hospital visitation rights, then I hate you.

Seriously.

I hate you.

There is nothing in my heart for you.

I will carry you from a burning building. But I will hate you as I save you.

And that's it.

For chrissakes, I shouldn't even have to say this.