Melissa Etheridge to The View’s Hasselbeck: The rights of minorities should not be voted on
Melissa Etheridge visited The View yesterday – to promote her new CD – and took time to provide a history lesson to Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
Speaking about California’s Proposition 8, Melissa explained the protections built into the Constitution by the U.S. founding fathers: “Actually one of the things that was difficult about this was that – Thomas Jefferson wrote a paper [saying] the rights of the minority should never be voted on by the majority. That should never happen.”
The notoriously naive Hasselbeck basically said she believes that the majority should vote on the rights of the minority, but – before Etheridge had chance to respond – Sherri Shepard interrupted and said, “We wanted to talk about your CD.”
Melissa Etheridge’s Holiday CD, called A New Thought For Christmas, includes Blue Christmas, O Night Divine, and Christmas in America.
WATCH:
I have recently left the catholic church. The reason I left the catholic church is the political involvement it had here in California during the elections in opposing same sex marriages. I am a strait woman, married for 25 years, same husband, two children same father. Same sex marriage does not affect my personal life in any other way than that I believe it is a civil rights issue. There is two different things here, religious and civil marriage. Let me explaining my feelings better: almost a year ago my husband had an accident. When I got to the hospital I was hushed to his side, as next of kin. I was so stressed, being allowed to be with my husband at that moment was one of the greatest blessings I could imagine at that time. This incident got me thinking, what if my marriage was not recognized? It would have being agony for me. Than I though further, if God forbid, I was to lose him? As a married woman, I would keep my home, where my children go to School because as a married woman I would not have to pay inheritance tax on my home. Well If I was not married I would not even be in the country legally because I would not have benefited from immigration laws that allowed my husband to bring me to this country as his spouse. If not married I would not receive social security, I have no job outside the home, I left my job when we decided to raise the children home. How could I enjoy this, when I knew other could not. Being Christian for me mean to be merciful and companionate. Christianity for me is about tolerance. I did not see that in my church. I did not want to raise my kids in an environment that thought them to be judgmental, to cast the first stone. I believe if you really believe in God you bring people to him by living by example, not by imposing laws.