why banning gay marriage is so important right now (to morons)
Warning: I've no idea why I feel inclined to write something political, but this has been bubbling around in my head for a while now. Today I read a story about gays moving out of Virginia because of anti-gay legislation, so this post finally boiled over and here it is.
Back in June, when the senate took time away from important business to actually debate and vote on a constitutional amendment which had zero chance in hell of passing, one dipstick Republican (is that redundant? yeah, prob so) Senator, chose to say the stupidest thing imaginable: "I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one." Yeah, right, Senator, your home state of Louisiana is still trying to cope with the losses from Katrina and get prepared before this year's hurricane season gets going, but they are all on the phones calling your office begging you to PLEASE prevent gays from EVER getting married. Of course, the real (and totally transparent) reason for this dumbass waste of the country's time and resources is that the GOP want to get people out to vote in November. They think they can to point at the Democrats who voted against the amendment and say, "See! They are evil-doers who must be voted out of office!"
Of course, the biggest problem that anti-gay folks have these days aren't us fags so much as the fact that the younger people just don't give a crap about gays as a political issue. Yes, there are plenty of stupid, bigoted teens, but I guarantee you that number is way smaller than it was when I was that age. These days it is fairly common to hear of several kids in high school (yes, even here in Georgia) who are out of the closet and are getting by with few or no problems from their peers. In a few years, as the current crop of high school kids become voters, they will begin to dilute the virulently anti-gay voting block who flock to the polls when given the chance to bash homos with the power of democracy. So, as each decade passes, the chances get smaller that anti-gay legislation will be so easy to pass. (I'm not kidding myself that in a few years we'll all be living in a homophobe-free society, but I bet the wingnuts of the "Christian" Right realize that acceptance of homosexuality is starting to become the norm.)
As you all know, my lovely fellow Georgians voted a couple of years back to amend our state constitution so as to protect us from the evils of gay marriage. Massachusetts hasn't fallen off into the ocean or anything since their Supreme Court stated the obvious and pointed out that, no, there's nothing legally standing in the way of two folks with the same kind of sex organs joining in a union that provides them and their chosen family with all the benefits that married non-gay folks enjoy. Naturally, the wingnuts are pushing an anti-gay amendment there, too, so we'll see how long before they have to turn back all their calendars to an earlier century. One straight friend of mine emailed me on November 3, 2004, wondering how in the world people actually willingly voted to amend the constitution to diminish the rights of the citizens. I dunno, but they are still allowed to vote, god bless'em.
Of course, rational human beings realize that legal gay marriages don't in any way detract from or threaten regular marriages. The concept itself encourages stable family relationships between same-sex couples. Also, you and I both know that many, many folks who are married now are secretly gay and many, many of them aren't staying faithful to their opposite-sex spouses. If they weren't afraid of being out and were allowed to join in on (what we are led to believe is) society's greatest rite with someone they actually are romantically and physically attracted to, wouldn't that reduce the number of just-for-show marriages, leaving fewer brides and grooms wondering what happened a few years later? Should we as a society encourage honesty and being upfront with the people we love and care about, or is it better to see lives ruined by lies and affairs? The laws (like gay marriage bans) designed to shame gays back into hiding encourage people to be dishonest and live with secrets and lies.
