As a Californian, this feels huge. The poster above who suggests that civil unions and marriages are equal has his facts wrong, both in terms of practical financial benefits (because civil unions can only cover state and not federal financial issues, so no joint filing with IRS) and symbolic ones (which was the core of the CA Supremes' decision - that the symbolic value incurred by using the term marriage has significant psychological benefits and social cache that civil unions do not). We all know separate but equal is an oxymoron. Frankly, when people claim that it's okay for separate to be treated as equal in this case, I tend suspect that it is a cover for other feelings and ideas that the speaker/poster/etc. doesn't want to talk about.

Those who are surprised by this letter are underestimating how painful the still-open wounds over prop 8 feel for the LGBT community and its allies. I think a lot of us feel like we compromised too much with Obama on this during the election -- Obama stated he opposed the measure, but he never did anything active to defeat it, and prop 8 supporters used his image to sell their lies, with no rectification from his camp. We didn't push him on it, because we didn't want to hurt his chances. There's a lot of regret about that now, and a lot of resolve not to stay silent any more.

To those who think folks are expecting that everyone agree with them %100 - you are either using hyperbole, or else you have no sense of the scale of the issue. You do not see a tremendous outcry over this man being anti-choice, most likely because he isn't seen as an influential voice on the issue. No one cares about his feelings about the UN or his position on the Iraq war. But he just played a part in directly harming thousands of families in my state. It's not that he is a passive believer in policies with which we disagree - its that he is an active purveyor of bigotry toward a minority group in this country and an active player in political efforts to oppress that group, efforts that have just recently been successful in directly attacking families in my state.

Those of you who are shocked or amused are not listening. Instead of deriding these folks for taking a stand, you might want to pause and wonder why this issue is so important to them that they are willing to take a stand. Change will never come if we must always wait for the right time. It's never the "right time" for those who are not suffering for the lack of it. But now is the time for us.

Here's me saying it with you.

ENOUGH!

It seems that some people will use almost any excuse to feel superior to others. Here this woman writes a graceful, intelligent, reflective piece about a frightening and painful time in her life, offering us the benefit both of her self-deprecation and her insight, and all some of you can do is call her greedy? Really, if that's your reaction to this piece, then you weren't paying attention. Either you didn't read the piece or you read it through the lens of anger and bitterness that is your own issue, not hers. It just goes to show, we are all capable of seeing exactly what we expect to see, evidence, instinct, and even common human kindness be damned.

It's less interesting to me why the public believed this story than why Rosenblat fabricated it in the first place. The story of how it grew from the desperate dream of a starving man to an act of public deception would be fascinating. Was this, ultimately, a grasp for attention and understanding that the author did not believe he would get if he told the story as it really happened? Did he stretch the truth for fame and fortune, figuring he'd had everything taken away from him and deserved to get something back. Did his fantasy grow so strong that he became almost delusional, or did he need to convince the world of the truth of his story in order to keep the fantasy alive?

The story of Herman Rosenblat only got more interesting once the deception was uncovered.

Obama will realize from this incident that pandering to the Christianists by inviting one of their preachers to your inauguration does not, in fact, get them to consider supporting you.