Olbermann's Special Comment on Proposition 8

On Countdown, Keith Olbermann issues a Special Comment on Proposition 8.

Transcript:
If you voted for this Proposition or support those who did or the sentiment they expressed, I have some questions, because, truly, I do not... understand. Why does this matter to you? What is it to you? In a time of impermanence and fly-by-night relationships, these people over here want the same chance at permanence and happiness that is your option. They don't want to deny you yours. They don't want to take anything away from you. They want what you want -- a chance to be a little less alone in the world.

Only now you are saying to them -- no. You can't have it on these terms. Maybe something similar. If they behave. If they don't cause too much trouble. You'll even give them all the same legal rights -- even as you're taking away the legal right, which they already had. A world around them, still anchored in love and marriage, and you are saying, no, you can't marry. What if somebody passed a law that said you couldn't marry?

I keep hearing this term "re-defining" marriage.

If this country hadn't re-defined marriage, black people still couldn't marry white people. Sixteen states had laws on the books which made that illegal... in 1967. 1967.

The parents of the President-Elect of the United States couldn't have married in nearly one third of the states of the country their son grew up to lead. But it's worse than that. If this country had not "re-defined" marriage, some black people still couldn't marry...black people. It is one of the most overlooked and cruelest parts of our sad story of slavery. Marriages were not legally recognized, if the people were slaves. Since slaves were property, they could not legally be husband and wife, or mother and child. Their marriage vows were different: not "Until Death, Do You Part," but "Until Death or Distance, Do You Part." Marriages among slaves were not legally recognized.

You know, just like marriages today in California are not legally recognized, if the people are... gay.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• proposition
• eight
• california
• keith
• olbermann
• equal
• rights
• gay
• marriage

[RealTime88]

I've been a fan of Keith Olbermann since 2007. The best Special Comment he has done on Countdown. Honest, emotional, and important. Keith Olbermann deserved his GLADD award and I believe that Countdown With Keith Olbermann is the best news show on television. He is an amazing journlist and I want to be great like him.

[Soundbeforelight]

wait, I don't understand how it is a perversion of society. I just don't see what is wicked or debasing about it. They're not killing people. And they're not attacking any religion or anything. Seperation of church and state. The legal right to marry is through the state, not through anyone's religion. That is a seperate matter. But anyone in favor of abolishing gay marriage is failing to see the difference.

[FidelKastrat]

amazing !!!

[Morclaw]

Heads up ! The number of atheists is steadily rising. We will save the world eventually!

[antred11]

Amazingly the ban on same-sex marriage was actually ok with me until a couple of years ago. I figured hey, this is a democracy; it's the will of the people. But I've changed my mind about that since then. The will of the people means fuck all if it is to TAKE AWAY other people's personal liberties. Otherwise the extermination of the Jews at the hand of the Nazis could be justified the same way: "Hey, after all it was the will of the people!!" Well, of some people anyway.

[bgibb101]

@TVWriterGuy - If you have relatives praying for the execution of homosexuals and their children, then they cannot be "Christians" in the true sense, can they?

[Slotzan]

@ceparuak You need some lessons in writing comprehension swiftly followed by a course in ethics.

[ceparuak]

@Onthroad2nowhere What kind of 'basic human right' are you talking about? If teens under 18 years old denied the right to buy alcohol, does it consitute denying a basic human right? If the law prohibits you from committing suicide, does it constitutes denying you a basic human right? If we say you cannot talk to someone you like, that's denying of human right. Marriage had never been in the same scenario as in basic human right. It is a reconition and moral standard of a civilized society.

[ceparuak]

Wow...wow...wow... such a sentimental comment I would say... which irresponsibly ignores the entire value and dignity of marriage in religious and cultural societies in this world! Pramarily, living together and civil union in US are already norms without legal involvement. Does your congenial feeling of being opposite gender constitute you the rightful recognition of that gender? Of course not. This kind of rationalization is stupid and destructive to our humanity.

[TVWriterGuy]

My hardcore fundamentalist Christian relatives should see this clip. They are praying that America will legislate the imprisonment and execution of homosexuals, including their own children. They have no mercy and are filled with nothing but hate for anyone outside their circle of faith.

[tobama08]

Love ....

How can anyone deny anyone else the search for it, or

the happiness of it. The people who battle, who FIGHT to deny

another human being to fulfill their COMMITTMENT to love

have no sense of what their OWN marriage means. If their marraige and

their love is soooo fragile that they cannot extend the same rights to

their fellow human being, well then... their "love" in marriage was never

a marriage of LOVE in the first place. I know who I feel sadder for:

How ironic is that.

[Arkayem]

@Brickhaus right