Magical

Today is a great day for California. Justice and equality have finally prevailed, and the horrible Prop 8 has been struck down! I'm so excited I could squeal for joy. San Francisco is abuzz with excitement, and all over the city there were celebrations last night.

When same sex marriages were first legalized in California back in June 2008, I was living in my old apartment that was just a few minutes' walk from City Hall. Immediately there were couples lined up anxiously outside, and all through the neighborhood I could see people happily on their way to exercise their long-awaited right to marry. It was a truly magical time to be in San Francisco. The whole city seemed aglow with love and joy. One of the sweetest things I've ever seen was two handsome men all decked out in their tuxes, hand in hand, running towards City Hall and laughing with delight.

Seeing all this happen really brought home to me what it must be like to be denied the right to marry the person you love. So many couples said to hell with the big wedding, the catering, the flowers, the fancy location (although I shouldn't knock City Hall; it's a pretty damn gorgeous building) -- these people were deeply in love and they had waited, perhaps for many years, and they simply couldn't wait anymore. And there was something so profoundly romantic about that, because being able to get married is so taken for granted by the rest of us that we'll put it off for months or even years while we save up the necessary money and search for the perfect location, the perfect dress, the perfect caterer. But when all you really want is to marry that person, it's the only thing that matters, isn't it? And for those couples, no amount of gifts and no number of guests could have made their moment any more special. What is an everyday thing for the rest of us was a history-making achievement for them. The simple right to love someone and marry them; does anything symbolize life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness any better than that? 

The struggle is of course far from over, but with this decision we've made an important step in the right direction. The time WILL come when marriage equality is a national policy and not just a statewide one, I really believe that. But I'm happy to see California being among the first; this is the California I'm proud to be a part of.

In related news, one of my hats is being worn to a gay wedding this weekend, and I am beyond thrilled. :-)

Dress: J. Crew

Cardigan: a gift from Mom

Tights: Hue

Shoes: John Fluevog 

Political Rantings

'Scuse me for a moment while I get all political on ya. It's not often (ok, it's not ever, really) that I talk politics on this blog, but this is an issue that has got my hackles WAY up, and I need to vent for a moment. The outfit details are all the way at the bottom of the post if you want to skip my rantings; the rest of this post has nothing at all to do with fashion.

As you may have guessed already, I have a deep and profound love of all things Latin American, and as a native Californian I consider many aspects of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, and other Latino cultures to be a part of my own heritage. So the shameful immigration law recently passed in Arizona, which I'm sure everyone has heard all about by now, just makes me clench my teeth with indignation.

Now I acknowledge that Arizona does have a hefty set of immigration-related issues that the federal government has done a terrible job in dealing with. But enacting a law that promotes mistrust and angry division is just never the right answer, is it?

Sure, illegal immigration poses problems; one of the most overlooked, in my opinion, is the way it undermines the Herculean efforts of people who come here by legal means. Talk to anyone who's gone through the process of obtaining a work visa in the US or becoming naturalized and you'll hear stories of miles of paperwork, gobs of money spent, hours in impossibly long lines, and legal red tape that would make your hair stand on end. Having obtained my citizen status by the easiest possible method, birth, I wholeheartedly admire the perseverance of legal immigrants. Moreover, I wonder what the US would be like if everyone was as passionate and committed to being here as our legal immigrants are? Would we suffer from the same sense of entitlement if we had to deal with the USCIS to obtain our rights?

On the other hand, it's pretty tough to blame people who risk everything to flee a desperate and often woefully impoverished situation for the chance of making a better life for themselves and their children. To me it is the original American Dream in its purest form. And the reality is that it's pretty much the same way most of our ancestors got here. Most Americans today cannot even fathom the sorts of troubles that people who flee to this country are facing in their home lands, and indeed, even the "better life" that many illegal immigrants find here is still far below the average American standard of living.

Illegal immigrantion does come with its share of other problems, not the least of which is the importation of drugs and the violence that goes along with them. But turning the local police, who live within that racially-mixed community, into what amounts to little better than an SS brigade, is a recipe for unrest and further conflict, most notably among people who aren't even a part of the original problem. Obviously the law legalizes racial profiling, but even worse, it builds walls between people who should be working together to solve these issues. I'm sorry Arizona, I don't have an easy solution for you, but the one you've opted for is quite possibly the worst you could've come up with.

I'd like to open up the floor for more discussion, because I know my insightful readers will have more to add on this one. Are there any Arizonians out there who have a different take on this issue? Legal immigrants who want to weigh in? People from Latin countries who are disgusted, irate, disappointed? People who have been impacted in one way or another? Let's hear it! Even if Arizona is taking a closed-minded approach, it doesn't mean we have to.

Today's (non-political) outfit:
Dress, bracelet: Betsey Johnson
Cardigan: Solemio
Harness: Audra Jean
Jacket: Tulle
Tights: Foot Traffic, via Sock Dreams
Shoes: Saks 5th Avenue
Adorable dog: Georgie