Melissa Etheridge Rightly Tells California What They Can Do With Proposition 8

Bravo to award-winning performer Melissa Etheridge, who has basically told California where they can stick their newly-passed Proposition 8.

In a post on the Daily Beast blog, Etheridge, a lesbian who has been married for the past 5 years to actress Tammy Lynn Michaels, announced her plans to stop paying the California state income tax.

Regarding the vote, Etheridge wrote:

I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books.

Okay, cool I don't mean to get too personal here but there is a lot I can do with the extra half a million dollars that I will be keeping instead of handing it over to the state of California. Oh, and I am sure Ellen will be a little excited to keep her bazillion bucks that she pays in taxes too. Wow, come to think of it, there are quite a few of us fortunate gay folks that will be having some extra cash this year. What recession? We're gay! I am sure there will be a little box on the tax forms now single, married, divorced, gay, check here if you are gay, yeah, that's not so bad. Of course all of the waiters and hairdressers and UPS workers and gym teachers and such, they won't have to pay their taxes either.

Good for Etheridge, she is absolutely right. I just hope that many follow in her footsteps.

How can a state's Constitution be amended by simple majority vote? This is insane.

Can you imagine the chaos that would have ensued if the United States Constitution was amendable by a simple plurality of 1 in a popular vote? Would women or blacks have ever been given the right to vote?

The fact that the civil rights of countless Californians has been revoked by the slimmest of majorities in a popular vote needs to be challenged in court.

Think this is frivolous? I know a man who lost everything, including his home, after his partner died. They were together for over a decade, but the deceased's bitter, greedy parents pretended that the 2 men were never a couple. And the surviving partner had little recourse. 'Marriage' isn't a luxury. It is a way for committed couples to protect each other legally, among other things.

Ms. Etheridge is correct in the stance she is taking. And I will take it one step further...I think anybody planning a trip to California should rethink whether or not that they want to give their hard-earned money to a state that supports bigotry and hate.