Ballots/Stones

You come out in droves;
Protectors of an ancient code
You’d like to know
What would become of you and yours
If left alone
So, with that pride destined to find
Itself on the wrong side of history
You take arms
Did you cast a ballot or a stone?*
Did it cast a shadow on their home?
Let’s go
To a place I know where men can share a home
By now the world should know
That your factions and their
Romance with interference
They have no business in these homes
Did you cast a ballot or a stone?
Did it cast a shadow on their home?
Your slogans echo loudly
From Edmund Pettus Bridge
Would you tear up like you did when the Lovings wed?
I’d give so much to see your assaults laid to rest
Would they be mourned like the rightless ones you’ve vilified?
Because at their funerals
When the priest gives the flag to her partner, she still cries
Four years before the state gave them the right
Did you cast a ballot or a stone?
[* This line was found on the picket signs of those who protested California’s
proposition 8
This song is dedicated to all those who fight on for marital equality
In the United States and across the world.]