You are here: Home » Featured » The Sky Is Falling?

The Sky Is Falling?

The sky is not falling.  At least not for Vermont.  In fact, the sky is cloudy and grey, but far from falling.  None of our mountains have burst into volcanos of brimstone.  In fact, Vermont is as stable as it was before Tuesday’s vote.  There was a touch of snow, but that was already heading our direction.

However, the sky may be falling for those in the opposition camp on the issue of same-sex marriage.  Indeed, with losses in Iowa, Vermont and Washington D.C., they are scrambling to regain traction in this issue with more money for more negative advertisements.  They are currently airing ads which claim that legalizing same-sex marriage somehow will hurt those who believe in opposite-sex marriage.  Never mind that they do not claim how this will happen or in what form.  Perhaps it is the same old claims of persecution which have been around for the last twenty years despite not actually manifesting.  In fact, they still point out the same old saw about the Catholic Charities which stopped handling adoptions because adoption by same-sex couples was legalized.  Never mind the fact that he seems to be forgetting that the law exempted any faith-based charity from having to perform those adoptions.  That is correct, the law was passed in such a form that it prevented any faith-based group from being sued or forced to hand over a child in an adoption to a couple that did not meet with their faith’s standards.

The whining has begun.  “We were outspent, out organized”, the opposition is claiming.  They were given enough time to organize, but chose not to.  “The people should be listened to,” they shout.  They had a year in which to come forward and make their voices heard.  “We were blind sided by this,” they cry.  They were given notice back in December that State Senator John Campbell intended to introduce this legislation, and that Speaker of the House Shap Smith was going to support it.

The recent ad from the National Organization for Marriage claims that the storm is coming.  The storm is not coming.  It is already here.  With each passing day that Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Washington, Oregon, Maine and the District of Columbia remain standing, and remain without any kind of sky falling or brimstone hurling, the harder it is for groups like NOM to scare people into compliance behind their fear that, somehow, their religion is under threat.

What is under threat is not their religious beliefs, but their place of privilege above all others.

No, the sky did not fall on the eight of April in the year two thousand nine.  It just snowed a little.  But the sky did not fall no matter how much the Chicken Little’s ran around saying it would.

The photos in this post were taken by me in and around Rutland, VT. Thanks go out to Dr. Rachel Maddow of the Rachel Maddow Show for the inspiration for this particular post.

Bridget “Sei” McBride is a trans-lesbian who lives in Vermont and has a strong passion for LGBTI rights. She has a BA in History and her hobbies include sci-fi, anime, fantasy, action movies, video games, and more. Currently, she is working on her MA in Individualized Studies at Goddard College. Her specialization is in cultural history and cultural comparison.