As most of you are aware, last week, our society took a huge leap forward and then significant steps backwards as gay-marriage bans passed in California, Arizona, and Florida.

My colleague has already written about the motivations behind the ban’s proponents, so instead, let me address an important leader in the most populous state of the union: bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-Republican Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Dear Governor,

When I heard back in 2003 that you were running for office, I had no idea what to think.

Sure, you had awesome election nicknames like ‘The Governator’ and ‘The Running Man‘. You even had the ‘actor’s charisma’ that had worked so well for other politicians. But how could voters ignore the fact that you had previously held only one political appointment, as chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (also known as “Stop Being Fatasses, America”)? I thought maybe you should stick to what you know best: kicking ass in Terminator, doing it again in Terminator 2, and contributing, as Mr. Freeze, to the disaster called Batman & Robin.

After becoming governor, you had your gaffes. Multiple times, you referred to your opponents as “girlie-men.” Most recently, you mocked then-Senator Barack Obama’s “skinny legs.”

I never took you, or your politics, seriously.

You proved me wrong, however, as this week you expressed your disappointment about Proposition 8, stating:

“It’s unfortunate, obviously, but it’s not the end… I think that we will again maybe undo that… and then move forward from there and again lead in that area.”

Thank you for being a beacon of hope during dark times for an oppressed minority.

Unfortunately, there are signs that things might turn worse before they get better. Arkansas recently decided to ban adoption by unmarried couples, which, unconfirmed but rumored by multiple internet sources, will essentially “re-orphan” children who already live with gay or unmarried couples.

So please, Governor, continue to prove me wrong, set an example, and help undo these shameful injustices. Give our society hope as you have already:

On Sunday, [Schwarzenegger] urged backers of gay marriage to follow the lesson he learned as a bodybuilder trying to lift weights that were too heavy for him at first. “I learned that you should never ever give up. . . . They should never give up. They should be on it and on it until they get it done.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.