Melissa Etheridge, an Academy Award-winning and Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, is mad-as-hell about Proposition 8 passing in California.  Etheridge and Tammy Lynn Michaels first exchanged vows in Malibu in 2003 and planned on marrying in California. In 2006, they welcomed twins, a boy named Miller Steven and a girl named Johnnie Rose. Etheridge has two children from a previous relationship with Julie Cypher: daughter Bailey Jean and son Beckett. (Bailey Jean and Beckett were conceived via artificial insemination courtesy of friend and rock legend David Crosby.)

Etheridge is proposing that gays in California should not have to pay taxes since they are being treated as second class citizens with the passage of Prop 8. Take a minute to read her thoughts on the matter. And, realize that of course, Etheridge is going to continue to pay her taxes. Her message is about equality. 

Okay. So Prop 8 passed. Alright, I get it. 51% of you think that I am a second class citizen. Alright then. So my wife, uh I mean, roommate? Girlfriend? Special lady friend? You are gonna have to help me here because I am not sure what to call her now. Anyways, she and I are not allowed the same right under the state constitution as any other citizen. Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books.Okay, cool I don’t mean to get too personal here but there is a lot I can do with the extra half a million dollars that I will be keeping instead of handing it over to the state of California. Oh, and I am sure Ellen will be a little excited to keep her bazillion bucks that she pays in taxes too. Wow, come to think of it, there are quite a few of us fortunate gay folks that will be having some extra cash this year. What recession? We’re gay! I am sure there will be a little box on the tax forms now single, married, divorced, gay, check here if you are gay, yeah, that’s not so bad. Of course all of the waiters and hairdressers and UPS workers and gym teachers and such, they won’t have to pay their taxes either.Oh and too bad California, I know you were looking forward to the revenue from all of those extra marriages. I guess you will have to find some other way to get out of the budget trouble you are in.…Really?

When did it become okay to legislate morality? I try to envision someone reading that legislation “eliminates the right” and then clicking yes. What goes through their mind? Was it the frightening commercial where the little girl comes home and says, “Hi mom, we learned about gays in class today” and then the mother gets that awful worried look and the scary music plays? Do they not know anyone who is gay? If they do, can they look them in the face and say “I believe you do not deserve the same rights as me”? Do they think that their children will never encounter a gay person? Do they think they will never have to explain the 20% of us who are gay and living and working side by side with all the citizens of California?

I got news for them, someday your child is going to come home and ask you what a gay person is. Gay people are born everyday. You will never legislate that away.

I know when I grew up gay was a bad word. Homo, lezzie, faggot, dyke. Ignorance and fear ruled the day. There were so many “thems” back then. The blacks, the poor … you know, “them”. Then there was the immigrants. “Them.” Now the them is me.

I tell myself to take a breath, okay take another one, one of the thems made it to the top. Obama has been elected president. This crazy fearful insanity will end soon. This great state and this great country of ours will finally come to the understanding that there is no “them”. We are one. We are united. What you do to someone else you do to yourself. That “judge not, lest ye yourself be judged” are truthful words and not Christian rhetoric.

Today the gay citizenry of this state will pick themselves up and dust themselves off and do what we have been doing for years. We will get back into it. We love this state, we love this country and we are not going to leave it. Even though we could be married in Mass. or Conn, Canada, Holland, Spain and a handful of other countries, this is our home. This is where we work and play and raise our families. We will not rest until we have the full rights of any other citizen. It is that simple, no fearful vote will ever stop us, that is not the American way.

Come to think of it, I should get a federal tax break too…

Celeb potheads are sharing their years of stoner experience in Shirley Halperin and Steve Bloom’s new book, “Pot Culture.”

In the guide to ganja, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine suggests puffing while listening to the music of Lauryn Hill, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder and Miles Davis, while model Adrianne Curry suggests covering up your weed breath with lip gloss. She said, “I carry orange lip gloss, which covers up the pot smell in my mouth for my husband when I tell him I haven’t been smoking . . For mints, I prefer Icebreakers. They’re really strong and burn your tongue, but they cover the smell up in two seconds.”

Jonah Hill, the stoner star of “Knocked Up” and “Superbad,” demonstrates how to get high by smoking out of an apple, and Whitestarr burn-out Cisco Adler shows the kids at home how to put together a gravity bong. Other celebs who dish on their herb habits: Melissa Etheridge, Cal Penn, Rob Thomas, and — of course — Steve-O.