(noon. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
INT. KITCHEN, CHICAGO – NIGHT
…where a father sits with his daughter, who is finishing her chicken and French fries.
Daughter: Why can’t a girl marry another girl?
Father: What do you mean?
Daughter: It’s illegal, right?
Father: Where did you get that?
Daughter: You were talking about it this afternoon. With your friends. About something that happened in California. You said ‘illegal’.
Father: Its– Its complicated, but if you decided you wanted to be with another girl… you could. Right now, where we live… it just wouldn’t be called marriage.
Daughter: What would it be called?
Father: A civil union.
Daughter: A civil “what”?
Father: Union.
Long pause, the daughter pushing chicken around her plate.
Daughter: I don’t get it.
Father: Its– Its like a marriage, but it can’t be called marriage…
Daughter: …because that’s illegal and illegal is bad.
Daughter: Stealing is illegal, right? And killing other people is illegal. And one girl marrying another girl is illegal.
Father: Its– Its not the same, Jo.
Daughter: Why is it not the same?
Father: Finish your chicken.
Daughter: Because that’s why they make stuff illegal. Because they think its bad.
Father: There’s nothing bad about–
Daughter: So, I can’t marry Schyler?
Father: No, but again… you could still be with Schyler if you wanted–
Daughter: Can you marry your brother?
Father: No.
Daugher: Not MY brother, but SOME brother. Is that illegal too?
Father: Yes, THAT’S illegal, but there’s an actual reason, which is that if a brother and a sister get married and try to have a baby, that baby will have serious medical issues and the government doesn’t want to risk that happening.
Daughter: OH! So, maybe if one girl marries another girl they would also have a sick baby and THAT’S why its illegal.
Father: No… that’s not the case.
Daughter: Its not?
Father: No, there are lots of ways that two girls who get married could have a healthy baby. It wouldn’t be THEIR baby in the same way with other couples…
Daughter: …but its NOT about healthy babies?
Father: No.
Daughter: And its NOT about being bad?
Father: No.
Daughter: Like stealing and killing? Not bad like that?
Father: No.
Long pause, as the daughter pops a French fry in her mouth, chews, and swallows.
Daughter: I– I really don’t get it.
Another long pause, the Father taking his own French fry.
Father: To be honest… I don’t get it either.
Thank God for Prop 8, so that I don’t have to have “confusing” conversations about marriage with my child.
Because, see, without Prop 8 I’d have to have the following, tortured, interchange:
Daughter: Can one girl marry another girl?
Father: Yes. Now eat Your chicken.
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is the “best” for you as well….
This is such a non-issue with me that the only thing I really want to know is how was the chicken prepared. Probably fried, since they also had fries.
Oh, btw….fucking Mormans. They should just stay in their own back yards, isolating Utah back to the stone age of Abraham.
Dicks.
That’s a nice touch.
Specifically, I don’t understand why we permit individuals, who are not personally and directly involved in the particular relationship, to be in the business of deciding who in the relationship can marry whom, and why we let the government back those people up in their astonishing assumptions and generalities. Jiminy Crickets! Most individuals are really lucky if they can figure out for themselves whom to marry or not. The idea that these same people get to decide this question for others is simply crazy.
to explain to our children ‘confusing’ explanations since the pilgrims got off the boat. Imagine having to explain A’s on adulterers chests and public displays of humiliation not to mention how to explain lighting women on fire. Each generation of persecutors comes up with a whole new set of rationalization to continue making a mockery of our lofty document’s claims that were all created equal.