there’s a great thread on the daily kos site about gay marriage and civil unions today. the gist of the argument is best stated by a poster named pastordan, a minister:
“I believe that God sanctifies the covenant made between two people, and the state legally recognizes that same covenant, whether made in a church or not. It’s one less piece of paper for me to sign, and one step toward a more equitable society for all of us.”
this seems so simple, so clearheaded. why isn’t this happening?
the argument is completely logical. but i’m convinced that this whole argument isn’t about logic. if it were, we would have had this or some other form of gay marriage in place long ago.
it’s about emotion. and, simply put, i think that a generation or two of older bigots have to die off before anything is going to get done.
and, at the same time we have to hope that younger people, the majority of whom are demonstrably in favor of complete equality in respect to marriage, don’t get a hardening of the cerebral arteries as they age, and become more conservative. which, unfortunately, tends to happen.
in the meantime, the supreme court has decided not to review the massachusetts gay marriage decision. good for massachusetts, i suppose, but it seems like the supremes are ducking the issue. why? i am a bear of very little brain, as pooh says, so i’m not sure. the pessimistic side of me says that they are waiting to get a solid bush-appointed conservative majority before tackling the issue.
i hope i’m wrong. unless, of course, they turn out to be real conservatives.
constitutional conservatives who would, of course, separate church and state as the constitution prescribes.
necessitating the solution above. that’s the trouble with this liberal/conservative thing, and why i’m not as worried about the supreme court as some people are. you can’t get too caught up in the labels when it comes to those justices. they get on the court, and you think that they are going to vote based on their history and whatever, and then they shock the hell out of everyone and vote with amazingly independent minds. look at o’connor. look at kennedy. someone smarter than me can do the math, but a big chunk of the 5-vote majority that keeps roe vs. wade intact are republican appointees.
so this one, i’m not going to worry about too much.
yet.