The California Divorce Ban is a movement led by John Marcotte. On his website, he states that you vow to stay together ’til death do us part, you’re not dead yet’. Therefore, ‘it’s better to stay together in a soul-sucking sham of a marriage, filled with icy silence punctuated with passive-aggressive hostilities than to admit you might have made a mistake.’
Yeah, it’s satirical. But he working hard to have his 2010 California Protection of Marriage Act on the ballot next year. It all started as Marcotte’s protest to the people of California voting for Proposition 8, to outlaw gay marriage, in 2008. His argument is that if gay marriage was to be banned, then traditional marriage should be all the more protected by banning divorce in California.
Marcotte is a 38-year-old Sacramento, California based web designer and writer. He has been married for 7-years and has two children. His wife has signed his petition and he claims to have collected dozens of other signature. In fact, his fans on Facebook number more than 11,000. He will need 694,354 valid signatures by March 22, 2010 in order to get his proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot. He is funding his efforts through the sale of t-shirts that depict a bride and groom chained at the wrists.
The movement for a California divorce ban has re-opened the wounds and division created by the Proposition 8 amendment that the people of California voted on last year. Restore Equality 2010 is a group led by Jeffry Taylor. It is a coalition of same-sex marriage activists who are working to have Proposition 8 repealed. While Taylor says he finds Marcotte’s proposal ‘hilarious’ and supports his message, his group does not intend to join forces with him.
There have been varying reasons that people have signed the Rescue Marriage Petition. Some have done it in support of gay and/or lesbian relatives. Some have signed it because they think it’s hilarious. Others have been sincere in their belief that divorce should be banned. Whatever the reasons, the whole episode has garnered Marcotte national attention and brought back debate on California’s Proposition 8 and the issue of same-sex marriage. Which, I suppose, was what he was trying to accomplish.
So what do you think of California Divorce Ban movement led by John Marcotte?
December 1st, 2009 at 11:39 am
I think that it is an absolutely great idea. I hope it passes. Let those who wanted to “Protect Marriage” in California be stuck in their marriages even if they are absolutely horrible or be forced to move out of state. After all, Gay and Lesbian people who want to be married they have to leave California for another locale.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I love this. If rightwingers are SO ANGUISHED over the threats to the sanctity of marriage that they think gay people represent, then they should totally support this movement. If marriage is a sacred vow and you believe the government should protect marriage, then the obvious way to do it is to hold people to their vows.
Of course, it will never pass. But hopefully it will get people to see the hypocrisy over the hand-wringing these people do over marriage – as long as THEY don’t have to be inconvenienced.
December 3rd, 2009 at 10:08 am
I’m a litte surprised that you write this has “re-opened the wounds and division created by the Proposition 8 amendment.” In my family these wounds are still quite real: true harm, even violence is not to strong to say, was done to my brothers and sisters and their relationships when their civil rights were outlawed by a popular vote last year.
July 13th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
[...] if you haven’t figured out already, this is a satirical campaign responding to those opposed to gay marriage. It’s not quite as obvious a spoof as Landover [...]