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Yesterday a California judge declared that stating that a marriage could only exist between a man and a woman was unconstitutional. [ Story Here ] Later stories have discussed the fact that the judge is a Catholic & a Republican. Nonetheless, already the frantic and bigotted calls painting him as an "activist judge" have begun.
In the wake of this decision, some folks are saying that it's just what the Republican party wanted, that it'll give them a new horse to beat through the mid-term elections and that people should be working for equal-right same-sex civil unions rather than "marriages".
I find it incredibly hard to see what the best way to ensure gay rights is.
On the one hand I think it's obvious that the whole gay-rights issue really turned out the bigots in the last election, and that this helped carry a number of Republicans, maybe even the President, into office. As a result of this new decision, we might well see a constitutional ammendment pass, even here in California, outlawing gay marriage--as happened in 7 or 8 states last November. Combine that with the fact that it's the old people in this country who are the most bigoted and the young who are the most accepting; every day, as people die & are born, the acceptance of same-sex marriage increases.
On the other hand I can't imagine the civil rights activists of the 1960s shrugging their shoulders and saying, "people aren't ready for interracial marriage yet" (and they weren't), "so let's wait 20 or 30 years." They got out there and they did something.
The ironic thing is that this whole mess shows the exact problem of not separating your church and your state. Marriage came into this country mainly as a religious status, and then it was allowed to permeate the government by tieing a large variety of benefits to it. Now the two are tightly intertwined. And, as we now try and make sure that all of our citizens are granted the same rights, the churches are screaming that we can't change their definition of marriage, which shouldn't have been allowed into the government in the first place.
Churches can be as bigotted and evil as they want; many are. The government shouldn't be.
Now those churches have to sleep in the bed they made.
In the wake of this decision, some folks are saying that it's just what the Republican party wanted, that it'll give them a new horse to beat through the mid-term elections and that people should be working for equal-right same-sex civil unions rather than "marriages".
I find it incredibly hard to see what the best way to ensure gay rights is.
On the one hand I think it's obvious that the whole gay-rights issue really turned out the bigots in the last election, and that this helped carry a number of Republicans, maybe even the President, into office. As a result of this new decision, we might well see a constitutional ammendment pass, even here in California, outlawing gay marriage--as happened in 7 or 8 states last November. Combine that with the fact that it's the old people in this country who are the most bigoted and the young who are the most accepting; every day, as people die & are born, the acceptance of same-sex marriage increases.
On the other hand I can't imagine the civil rights activists of the 1960s shrugging their shoulders and saying, "people aren't ready for interracial marriage yet" (and they weren't), "so let's wait 20 or 30 years." They got out there and they did something.
The ironic thing is that this whole mess shows the exact problem of not separating your church and your state. Marriage came into this country mainly as a religious status, and then it was allowed to permeate the government by tieing a large variety of benefits to it. Now the two are tightly intertwined. And, as we now try and make sure that all of our citizens are granted the same rights, the churches are screaming that we can't change their definition of marriage, which shouldn't have been allowed into the government in the first place.
Churches can be as bigotted and evil as they want; many are. The government shouldn't be.
Now those churches have to sleep in the bed they made.