As I have said before, I am not surprised but I am disappointed about Tuesday’s election results. 17.89% of Texans voted on the Marriage Amendment. This is the highest voter turn out in the history of Amendment only elections in Texas.
The GLBT was told they were second class citizens by a 70% margin. People try to tell me that the majority of Texans don’t agree with the proposition but this was not an election to get people to the polls. Well, that is total bullshit!
Amendment 2 was reported in every newspaper, news channel, radio talk show, and church pulpit for the last 3 or 4 months. The GLBT community has been talking about this Hate Amendment since it was introduced as a Joint House Bill in the 79th Legislature. The blogs as well as the editorial sections of the newspapers have been talking about it constantly. I know I am one of the bloggers.
Early voting started October 24th and went through November 5th and then Election Day was November 8th. Anyone who wanted to vote had plenty of time to do so.
If a person did not bother to get off their lazy ass and vote against discrimination, then they voted for it by proxy. I truly pity the person who is stupid enough to tell me they forgot to vote. I do not know what my reaction will be but I will let you know once I am out of jail because I have a feeling that is where I will wind up. This lack of caring by voters and Texans makes me madder than the damn results themselves. 82.11% of Registered Voters in Texas do not care about Civil Rights and believe that writing discrimination into the Texas Bill of Rights is not important enough to get off their fat asses to stop. No college football or the latest gun is more damn important to them.
Voter apathy is nauseating to me. I have been voting since I was 18 years old. I might have missed a few minor local elections but not many and have come to realize that even the local elections are not as minor as some people think. I have never missed a Mayor’s race, Governor’s race, or Legislature or Congressional race or State Initiative race in my life.
This sadly reminds me of the people in Germany who thought Hitler was a joke until it was too damn late and they were being led to the camps. As Rev. Peter Johnson said “If they come for you in the morning, they will be coming for me in the evening.” If you did not bother to vote or try and stop this discrimination from happening, you helped it come about and will reap the benefits of the bigotry someday. I am not looking forward to wearing a pink triangle like the first victims of the Holocaust but I see the day coming and have decided to get a jump on it. I will start wearing my Pink Triangle button again and am asking every GLBT community person to do the same. Wear it everywhere and explain the history and meaning. We have to stop this madness in Texas and in America.