John Marcotte is on a mission to protect traditional marriage. And I am 100% in support of his efforts. What is he trying to do? He’s asking the people of California to step up and help him put the “2010 California Protection of Marriage Act” on the ballot. The act reads:
SECTION 1. Title. This act shall be known as the “2010 California Protection of Marriage Act.â€
SECTION 2. Section 7.6 is added to Article I of the California Constitution, to read:
No party to any marriage shall be restored to the state of an unmarried person during the lifetime of the other party unless the marriage is void or voidable, as set forth in Part 2 of Division 6 of the Family Code.
That’s right, no divorces. At all. One you’re married, that’s it.* Some might object, saying that that this is giving the state far too much power of the lives of two consenting adults.  But as Marcotte explained, in a recent interview:
[s]ometimes other people need to sacrifice in order to protect my ideas about traditional marriage. It’s just a fact of life. It’s not about their soul-sucking sham of a marriage, it’s about what we value as a society. We live in a divorce-promiscuous society. It’s on the television, it’s in movies, the newspapers. It’s even in our kids textbooks. I’m Catholic. In my religion, divorce is a sin — completely impermissable.
And how does he think he’s going to do this?
We’re going to set up a table in front of Wal*Mart and ask people to sign a petition to protect traditional marriage. We’re going to interview them about why they thing traditional marriage is important, and then we’ll tell them that we are trying to ban divorce.
People who supported Prop 8 weren’t trying to take rights away from gays, they just wanted to protect traditional marriage. That’s why I’m confident that they will support this initiative, even though this time it will be their rights that are diminished. To not support it would be hypocritical.
We’re also going to collect signatures in front of “Faces,” the largest gay nightclub in Sacramento.
Get on it, California.
*Okay, some marriages might be not be forever. Marcotte does acknowledge that “[t]he only exception would be if the marriage was “voidable” — if you married an 8-year-old, you don’t get to keep her. She goes back on the shelf. You can’t marry the mentally incapacitated, etc.”
Joy
guppy and I are effectively married (well, civil unioned) forver, because in order to get one from Vermont dissolved, we have to be residents there for a year.
And you know as well as I do the chances that she would ever move to Vermont for a year.
MB
You could tell her that Vermont has bacon trees. You know, just in case.
Joy
We were just discussing whether bacon trees would have maple frost on them in the winter.
Are you trying to break us up man?
MB
Well, I do think you’re kinda cute, and as much as she’ll hate to hear it, I’ve never thought Gup all that intimidating, so . . . uh, no?
Beth
Ha, Faces is in our neighborhood so we may get to sign this petition tonight. Want me to sign it for you, too? We aren’t picky about that stuff in California.