Saturday, June 25, 2011

Some rare good news

New York State and the legalization of same sex marriage. Last night I happened to be watching the Rachel Maddow show as the New York state senate was voting, and have to admit I felt like cheering, too. Marriage equality just strikes me as being the sane, civilized thing to do.

I have never been able to understand the opposition to "gay" marriage. Everytime I'd hear someone fulminate about how gay marriage threatened the institution of marriage in general, I had the same question: How? How does what anyone does in his or her marriage affect anyone other than the people in that relationship? For that matter, how does what anyone does in his or her bedroom affect anyone else as long as the activities behind closed doors involve only consenting adults? If marriage is threatened, it seems to me like the threats are coming more from adulterers like Newt Gingrich than from any gay couple wanting to get hitched.

One of my acquaintances used to do a lot of ranting about the evils of gay marriage. His primary line was always that the very notion of marriage equality threatened his own marriage. He finally shut up (at least around me) when I asked him point blank, How? Is your marriage so shaky that the only thing Sharon is waiting for before dumping you is the right to marry a woman?

No doubt various religious fundamentalists are going to have a field day ranting about how this is yet another sign of an impending apocalypse. Let 'em rant. Legislation like this is a good reminder that the social conservatives are actually waning in number; there are always going to be bigots and idiots, but, at least in the area of gay rights, every day the bigots move a little bit closer to irrelevancy.

And, a slight digression: why is it that men seem so much more worried about homosexuals than women do?  One of life's little mysteries (at least for me) is why so many homophobic men seem convinced that if gays get any civil rights it's going to make the straight men the object of unwanted sexual attention. The guys who seem most homophobic, of course, are the ones that also generally seem convinced every woman on the planet is hot for their bods when reality would suggest that they couldn't manage to get laid in a whorehouse. I've never met a woman who gave a rat's patoot about whether or not other women were gay; why do some men obsess about it?  

3 comments:

  1. This is good news indeed. I'd love to see it be the start of a trend.

    About your observation - I've wondered the same thing. Surely someone has commissioned a study on this, right?

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  2. Marriage is a civic institution, not religious; at least in most countries, including Canada and USA.
    You can be churched all you want but are not legally married until the STATE says you are. So what all the fuss is about is anyone's guess.
    I like your rationale - "HOW?". I can hardly wait to get into an argument and use it. thanks.

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  3. I read in interestin take on the subject of gay marriage undermining marriage. The idea was that if men, who are superior to women can be together in a marrigae, raise children, etc. that it shows that women need not be considered inferior and in need of the protection of marriage and husband.

    Two equal males (because isn't that the kind of gay marriage they seem most concerned with?)in an equal partnership removed the necessity of there being a lesser partner - a lesser female, subservient to the superior male partner.

    The article expressed it better, I I think it was on Salon.com.

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