While much of the country (nay, the world) celebrates our nation’s return to reason, many others are protesting the backwards steps some states have taken yet again this year in the continuing fight for civil rights. California was the hot-bed for this battle, from police clashes at protests to celebrities condemning Proposition 8, which changes the state’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage in direct conflict with the summer ’08 state Supreme Court ruling. Most notable on the celebrity front is Melissa Etheridge, who has publicly stated she will no longer pay state taxes:
Etheridge declares that if she’s not “allowed the same right [to marry] under the state constitution as any other citizen. … I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes, because I am not a full citizen.”
The announcement comes as Governor Schwarzenegger, who has also spoken out publicly against Proposition 8, has called for tax hikes in the financially troubled state. Guess that hike will have to be a bit larger if others follow suit, especially Apple Computers, who donated $100,000 to the no on 8 campaign and who are one of the larger corporate tax contributors to the state (EDITOR’S NOTE–this is comedic speculation, Apple has not even joked about not paying their taxes). We at Jaded Times applaud Miss Etheridge, and will happily send a fruit basket (with requisite file) to her cell come tax week.
In other celebrity news, Leonardo DiCaprio has said he is glad to have dropped his “sex-symbol status”, which is news to us, as we didn’t know he’d had one.
