“When I said I was a uniter, not a divider, I assumed you’d understand I meant a heterosexual uniter”
Posted on:: February 24th, 2004
Cross-posted at Loose Democracy:
If I were getting married today, I think I’d opt for a civil union instead. Limiting marriage to heterosexuals feels so arbitrary that it’s, yes, weakening the institution for me.
I could argue in favor of my position, and you would hear nothing that you hadn’t heard from others. But I don’t think we change our minds about moral issues through argument…
Categories: Uncategorized dw
I hesitate to admit this, but issues like this cause me to feel embarassed about my nationality. Conservative American rhetoric would have us believe that we’re dancing on the edge of some liberal precipice, the pace of change so rapid that we’re ready to fall collectively into chaos or spin apart through centrifugal force. The reality is far different. Compared to so many other perfectly lovely places on this earth, we’re positively backwards we’re so conservative. If only more people could see our country relative to the rest of the contemporary world instead of relative to the book of leviticus.
And this is a perfect wedge issue for the GOP. There are too many blue collar and union types that might vote Democratic but won’t because they respond too well to the bumper sticker-sized arguments against gay marriage. Pandering to fear and greed will be the subtext of their message, as it so often is. Fear the gays, fear the terrorists. Keep your hard earned tax dollars from the hands of the lazy poor, while preserving the right to be stupid-rich. After all, your turn may be next!
Reality phone ringing for the GOP: If you want to strenthen marriage, do something about jobs. Couples fight a lot about money when they don’t have enough. Then do something about subsidizing child care or create national single-payer health care. Families love health care and jobs. Then make sure social security is solvent. Families include the elderly. Turning away the gay couple from down the block when they go for a marriage license doesn’t do anything for my family. Not one thing.
Going to go take a deep breath now.