In what was described on my TV as “breaking news” last night, the NY state Senate has passed a same-sex marriage bill. So why didn’t I call this post something like “NY Grants Gays The Right To Marry?” Here’s why:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
No government can “grant” to humans the rights they were born with. They can only act to defend or deny those rights. As far as I’m concerned, lasts night’s vote merely represents a step back from an active government policy to deny gays equal protection under the law. And lest anyone thinks that this is any more than just a small step back, take a look at this interview conducted by CNN’s Anderson Cooper:
Click image to open video page
Religious protections? What the hell does that mean? “Gays will be treated equally by everyone except those who ‘believe’ they shouldn’t be?” What kind of law is that?
ARGH!
Okay, I’ll grant that this is in fact a move in the right direction. But just remember what I said at the end of my None Of Us Are Free post: “NO ONE is free if ANYONE is chained!” You might also be interested in what I had to say, on this same subject, way back in November of 2008: Tolerance… Not! Gays and Marriage. Perhaps then you’ll understand why, to me at least, we’ve still got a very long way to go – baby!
See all the posts in the Tolerance… Not! volume
I want ice water.
I Want Ice Water! 
In OUR future thinking & practices: No racism ALLOWED! No idiotic male chauvinism nor bigoted discrimination ALLOWED! No ideological nor religious motivated terroristic stupidity ALLOWED! No xenophobic isolationism, dumb criminality, abusive exploitation or violence against women and children, nor avaricious global exploitation of humanity ………ALLOWED!
-Bobby Seale
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I’m cool with every bit of that!
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I pity the fool who wants to get married full stop! 🙂
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Absolutely! Who’d want to be “owned” by another person? 😯
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Saw your post plug on the WordPress forum. The persistent idiocy of those who are opposed to gay marriage continues to stymie me. Shouldn’t the straights make marital discord, legal battles, and possible divorce available to everyone? Why are we so insistent on keeping it to ourselves? 🙂
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Thanks for dropping by to comment! Your argument pretty much reflects what I had to say in my Tolerance… Not! Gays and Marriage post, where I also suggested what I think is a better way. Whether one agrees with me or not, I still say that the more people there are suffering through the disastrous institution we call marriage, the more people there will be working to make it better! 😀
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Funny. I never wanted to be married or “owned” myself.
Checking out this video, however, I do agree with some of what they are calling “religious protection”. For example, I agree that a Baptist Pastor or a Catholic priest should not have to marry two men or two women, when the bible clearly states its views on that, and people trying to follow their beliefs, well, it would be as awful as telling a Priest or Pastor to marry a man to a goat. But a civil wedding should not be barred.
The way I was able to resolve this issue in my mind, and not let religious fervor interfere (although my religious fervor left town many years ago) is to view homosexuality as a disability that affects sexual connection. When someone has a disability, they must find an “adaptation” to that problem, such as the obvious, a paralyzed individual needs a wheel chair, and blind persons may have a seeing eye dog. From there, they can adapt and experience their life as fuly as possible. A gay person cannot find themselves physically attracted to the opposite sex for sex or a life partner.
The religious standpoint is, do not be gay. Live without a caring life partner. Suffer. Suffer so that we can be more comfortable. Repent, etc. Do they deny wheelchairs to the paralyzed, or a seeing eye dog to the blind, just because, say, they find dogs unfit for living inside a house or entering a restaurant? Maybe, but under the Americans with Disabilities Act, you need to just “get used to it”. I think Gays shold be offered the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and as such, if you can get the religion out of it, realize people, well, most people, require a partner to better live their lives. I realize many people would take offense at the idea of calling homosexuality a disability, but I only address it as such as regards sex, not work or any other physical function. If you make a homosexual marry the opposite sex, they will be very unhappy and probably dysfunctional sexually, proof that this may be considered a sexual disability. Although I realize it is love, also. It’s an angle, anyway, on how these individuals might already be protected by Federal Law!
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Recognizing the dis-functionality of the adults I grew up around, I did as young people often do: I married at the age of seventeen, convinced that doing better than they did would be a breeze! But, as young people also often do, I completely underestimated the complexities of living in a society where few people say what they actually mean and live as they actually want.
My objections to the whole “religious protections” bit wasn’t because I think that churches should be forced to marry gays in opposition to their beliefs, but rather that I thought the religious angle was just being used by the conservatives to attack the legislation on the only grounds they could get any traction with. If it were up to me, I’d get rid of any “anti-discrimination” legislation that doesn’t provide protection against actual harm.
If you look through the posts in my Tolerance… Not! volume, you’ll find that the one recurring theme through all of them is my belief that much of the evil in this world comes from our unwillingness to show ourselves for who we really are, and from our attempts to force others to hide their trues selves away as well. We can speculate forever about what could or should be, but as long as we don’t know the true make-up of our society we can’t possibly make accurate assessments of what we need to be healthy.
Not to mention the fact that a “participatory” form of government like ours is totally dependent on citizens being able to make well-informed choices in the “free market” of associations and commerce. Laws that force people to pretend that they “like” everyone serve only to rob the individual of his freedom of choice – leaving him vulnerable to unwittingly supporting those who hate him in secret.
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never understood marriage but totally agree that everyone should have a chance to do it so long as they are in humanoid form (sorry Zed from Betelgeuse…).
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OMG, are you trying to inspire a Betelgeusian revolt? At least you left room for my “robolove” dream to come true! 😆
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oh god yeah, we have to give the droids a chance… 😀
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Absolutely. Hell, I’m still hoping to hook up with our Bionic girl! “D
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I really like the Bobby Seale quote. Good maxim.
As to the religious aspects . . . beh. Beh, I say. However, good on you NY.
small steps . . . small steps . . . breathe . . . small steps . . .
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The Seale quote was really spot on, wasn’t it? As for breathing and taking small steps, I think I need one-click access to Drift Away! 😀
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The world would be a happier place without religion…
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I couldn’t agree more!
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This brings to mind the furore on my side of the pond last year over a gay couple being denied a room at a Bed & Breakfast (a boarding house, more or less, in case you’ve never heard the term) run by a Christian couple. The gay couple sued, and won. Predictably, the hardcore religionists were out in force, decrying the so-called “respect agenda” – “what about our rights?”, etc. For me, what it boiled down to was this. One is a matter of choice, one is a matter of biology, and therefore takes priority. You can choose and even modify your belief system. You cannot choose or modify your sexuality.
PS: Been reading through your “Tolerance… Not!” series. I pretty much agree with all of it. Hopefully, one day, the human race can get it’s act together. I just fear it’ll take something pretty major for that to happen.
PPS: You can have the Bionic girl if I don’t find her first!
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First, and most importantly, you leave my bionic girl alone! Now that that’s out of the way, I want to thank you for browsing through my blog – especially so many of the posts that were so heartfelt to me. With such in-depth background on my opinions, I’m sure you’ll understand why I think it’s okay for people to deny their services to those they don’t approve of – as long as no attempt is made to hide the fact, by them or by the government.
It’s when government acts to discriminate between its citizens, as is the case with, in increasing order of degree, blacks, women and gays here in the U.S., that things go awry. I firmly believe that when people are truly free to associate with whom they choose, those with extreme views about people will be made obsolete by the “free market” of ideas. So, in the case of the Christian run Bed & Breakfast, clear public awareness of their attitudes would ultimately drive them out of business because those with open minds wouldn’t choose to stay there.
You know that I was feeling bad that some might have taken offense to my The Cover Sometimes Makes The Book post. That has only fed my fear that the “serious” part of this blog’s mission statement (laid out in The LowDown widget at the top of my sidebar) is just a waste of time. Thanks for proving that it’s not! 😀
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I should clarify that that was reading through, as in ongoing! Perhaps I should’ve said, “Agree with all of it, so far.”
To be fair to the B & B owners, they were apparently upfront about their beliefs, were relatively civil and even refunded the couple’s deposit, so I’ll concede that there were other options on the table than going to the police. I can understand why they did, but perhaps they could’ve exercised better judgement. To paraphrase one gay man quoted on Have I Got News For You “what self-respecting gay couple stays at a B & B in Cornwall?”
PS: The Bionic girl is mine! You can have her when she’s done killing me!
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Fair enough. And I wouldn’t expect that you’d agree with everything. To paraphrase Ayn Rand, “there are no conflicts between men of good will.” If dropping that name doesn’t cause you to react the way a fundamentalist would after seeing two men making out :shock:, then we’ll probably be okay. You see, I really do understand what it means to be a disrespected minority! 😀
I do think the gay couple were due some compensation for damages (having their plans crushed) caused by the B & B’s failure to announce their policies in advance. But my personal preference would be to attempt a peaceful settlement without a big public ruckus. The fewer uninvited people meddling in my affairs the better!
And, once again, I must ask you to cease and desist from your lascivious pursuit of my bionic girl. From what I’ve seen of your blog, you’re probably much harder to kill than I am, and I’m not sure how much longer the poor dear’s batteries will hold out! 😆
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So sad that NY can get it right but California can’t….gosh my state is such a joke….
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I was shocked when Proposition 8 passed. What’s worse is that I hear it wouldn’t have without a lot of help from the Black religious community. Sad.
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