(Untitled)

[demotu]

You've probably already seen that ad, and you've probably already been linked to bodlon's post on the topic of the backlash against gay marriage. smirnoffmule also linked me to a breakdown of the lies in the video.

Last night, I was watching the latest episode of Project Runway Canada, the second-last episode where the mentor goes back to the contestants homes to see

Comments

[verasteine]

What else can I say but 'word'? So totally with you.

[0mindthegap0]

I'm not familiar with these commercials - wrong country to be able to see them and all that. Do you have a link to point in the right direction?

Remember Paul Martin's lengthy speech about civil rights and equality when they passed that in Canada? All about respecting how everyone can be different but respected equally, that you can think and do whatever you want as long as it doesn't infringe upon the rights of anyone else. There's a very strong tradition of immigration and being forced to mix with people who may not necessarily share your beliefs and... gah. It's one of the things that make me really insanely proud to be naturalising there.

[demotu]

Bodlon has it in his post, if you want to see it. I didn't want to add to links/hits on my own.

Naturalising here? We definitely take pride in our focus on the rights of the whole over the rights of the individual, though we don't always succeed. I don't remember the details of that speech - mostly I remember the Catholic church coming down very hard on Martin, and him sticking to his guns despite that. One of the reasons I respect him despite his flop as PM.

[0mindthegap0]

You linked to a Box Turtle Bulletin post, actually. : D Found it though now, so thank you. : )

I think there was some stuff specifically about how full equality = marriage and nothing less than that. In the UK they coined the whole 'civil partnership' concept specifically to try to avoid pissing people off, but it still kind of rubs me the wrong way in that separate but equal kind of way.

John prefers it because he doesn't want anything to do with an institution that rejected him (understandably), but it worries me a bit that he's conflating marriage with the religious meaning of it, rather than the civil kind.

[demotu]

Oh, twice? Whoops. Fixed that.

The civil marriage thing in the UK rubs me the wrong way, too. I mean, if they ONLY way to get marriage was through a church, and there was no such thing as legal, secular marriage, sure. But plenty of atheists, non-christians, w/e get married, and anyone who says our society views marriage as a purely religious thing these days is simply obfuscating. I think John's just a pretty positive person, in general, and of course he's got a right to his opinion.

[paragraphs]

What Vera said

[bodlon]

*hug*

I love you so hard, dem. SRSLY.

[criccieth]

it's getting there over here too. But slowly. And I can see that "civil partner" is not the same thing as husband/wife. I was in the library with the creative writing class last week and heard one woman say her partner's sister had died, so they were having a rough week. So far so normal but someone else asked were they close. I'd not have thought anything of it until I realised that her answer (from a woman who normally speaks English very grammatically) had managed the grammer so that she didn't mention her partner;s gender. Anything, so far no nothing but it made me wonder whether said partner is female as well and she's trying to avoid saying so because she doesn't want to deal with negative reactions. And no-one should have to feel like that. Not for being in a loving relationship with a fellow consenting adult.

So yay to Canada for leading the way and yay to the US for starting to try.
So I agree