Tuesday, November 14, 2006

And Then There Were Five.

Well, then. We were talking with a gay activist today about the conservative protest against the gay marriage law in Spain. It's in front of the country's Constitutional Tribunal (like our Supreme Court) right now. Here, the right wing Partido Popular wants to take the word "marriage" away from the gays, but leave them all the rights in a different law, outside of the constitution.

The man with whom we were speaking was Pedro Zerolo, the writer of Spain's equal marriage law, a government minister, and the man widely credited for making equality a reality here. On the suit in front of the Constitutional Tribunal, he said.

"There's a word for what they want. Separate rules for separate people. The word is: Apartheid."

Probably just the right word to be throwing out today:

NYTIMES - South African Parliament Approves Gay Marriages

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

nicely done.

MyMyMichl said...

Indeed, it was well done.

Glad you brought that up. Pedro Zerolo knew exactly what he was doing when he used 'apartheid' -- a word that had already been deeply implanted in the minds of the many as being bad ass, and linked it to the bigotry he is fighting in Spain. It's nice to see that ancient tactic used for good; all too often it's employed by the bad guys to fuck over their enemies -- usually minorities. Ever since there was language, there were people who used it as a weapon.

Look at the way Lou Dobbs uses "Illegal Alien" as a billy club to beat up the gentle Mexicanos. That ugly minded man is on a campaign against beautiful people who have no voice, no CNN to stand on with the whole world listening. Every time I listen to his sad ass face I remember how many great Mexicanos have cooked some of the finest meals I've had, in some of the highest rated restaurants in New York. Hell, I'm glad they're here. You'd never find an American kid to sling his tits over a hot stove for a dozen hours and keep smiling while turning out the best vittles you ever et.

I guess me being a foodie shows, huh?