ballot initiatives round-up
So it was a good day for abortion rights, a bad day for medical marijuana, and a mixed (but mostly bad) day for gay rights.
81% of Tennesseans think that gay people shouldn’t be allowed to get married. What. The. Fuck. Way to live up to the cracker, redneck, asshole image that state would do very well to try to shed. Some Tennesseans are as pissed off as I am, but it would seem that the gay and gay-friendly population of that state is either a) miniscule or b) too lazy to vote. Either way, I feel even more justified in my dislike of THE EVIL EMPIRE.
While it’s not quite the 11-for-11 the homophobes got in 2004, the returns are pretty crappy on gay rights all around, Arizona notwithstanding. (Of course, Arizonans don’t get off scot-free in the bigotry awards, since in a ridiculous, xenophobic measure, they voted to make English the official language). Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, and Wisconsin all made sure that not only would gay people be denied the right of marriage, but second-class citizenship isn’t appropriate either: their measures explicitly ban any future attempts at creating domestic partnerships. Colorado both banned gay marriage and, in a separate ballot initiative, declined to create domestic partnerships, but at least they didn’t ban them outright.
Arizonans not only like gay people, they’re sensible about money too: they also voted for raising the minimum wage (as did Colorado, Missouri, Montana, and Ohio) and against a $1M lottery one would enter by voting. Good on you, Arizona, for being smug enough while you’re in the voting booth to say, “By golly, I’m voting WITHOUT a chance at a Powerball jackpot thrown in, so those stupid bastards who would only show up if democracy was some kind of fucking raffle can go blow.”
In abortion rights initiatives, California and Oregon rejected measures to require parental notification (the teens who won’t be dying when they try to abort their fetuses themselves rather than telling mom or dad thank you), and South Dakota rejected their insane ban on all abortions–apparently most voters think that carrying your rapist uncle’s child isn’t the silver lining on the cloud of sexual assault.
And nobody likes medical pot: measures were rejected in Colorado, South Dakota, and Nevada (where, to paraphrase Ole Blue Eyes, if it’s illegal there, it’s illegal EVERYWHERE).
Minnesotans (who for some reason decided to keep Pawlenty in the governor’s mansion and sent Michelle “I’m the biggest bigot in Minnesota Politics” Bachmann to Washington) voted yes on a stupid constitutional amendment to dedicate money to public transit and roads. Dedicated revenue amendments just hogtie the legislature and make it harder to balance the budget. But at least we didn’t single out gay people for discrimination in our state constitution–our legislature did it for us in a law that passed in 1997 and that seems to be good enough for Minnesota for now. Go us.
November 8th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Well, it’s a stretch to say “nobody likes medical pot.” True: three bids to legalize medical pot failed yesterday, at least one (in SD) by a slim margin. But nationally, support for legalizing doctor-prescribed cannabis polls in the high 70s. Since California legalized medical pot ten years ago with Prop 215, ten states distributed pretty evenly across the country have followed suit.
We can expect the new Dem-controlled Congress to challenge federal crackdowns on medical pot dispensaries in California and elsewhere. Even the thugs in riot gear who bust these quasi-legal facilities have been overheard by witnesses wondering out loud to each other why they are handcuffing and arresting wheelchair-bound and terminally ill patients. Add to this the growing body of scientific evidence pointing to a “broad spectrum” of efficacy of pot for cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, Alzheimer’s, and pot may even have a protective effect against lung cancer.
Finally, three city-level measures passed in Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and Santra Cruz moving marijuana arrests down to the lowest enforcement priority. Here’s the Drug Policy Alliance’s complete take on yesterdays’ election results: http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/110806vote.cfm
So, indeed, there’s lots to celebrate on the drug policy reform front!