Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Gay Rights And The Conservatives

Are the Christian Conservatives becoming a dying breed?  They who made gay marriage an issue during the last election cycle? Because of their being so out spoken, the anti-gay label stuck with the Republicans.  Oh, sure, many tried to nuance it by saying they were for civil unions but not gay marriage. One man and one woman and all that.

I've always wondered why the gays weren't satisfied with that if the benefits were equal except for the term 'marriage'.  But they weren't.  Perhaps because the benefits were inconsistent from state to state just as is gay marriage.

Some states have legalized it. Others have not. You can join the military but not the Boy Scouts.  If the Republicans had won I'd probably not be writing this.  But they didn't and the Democrats have stolen the march on them  largely thanks to the President himself 'evolving' on how he feels about it.

Amazing how losing an election can bring about change.  According to Politico some 80 Republican leaders have now signed a pro-gay marriage brief.  Some pretty heavy hitters too.  George W. and Laura Bush, of course Mary Cheney, David Frum, David Stockman, Christie Whitman and Meg Whitman  along with dozens of others from administrations past.

Wow.  Where have they been?  Which brings about another question.  How many of them really believe gays have a constitutional right to marry?  How many of them have put their signature on the brief only because the time has come when it's politically expedient to do so?  who knows?

I'm sure the gays don't care about the reasoning as long as they've done so.  Now the Supreme Court has to enter into the fray.  It won't be pretty.  Depend on a backlash from the staunchly anti-gay groups and more ugliness from the Westboro Baptist Church types.

I for one will be glad when the issue is resolved one way or another.  I don't see anything positive from having the rules regarding marriage vary from state to state. If a religious organization doesn't want to recognize such a marriage that should be their right, but as for the legality of it, why shouldn't it be uniform?

When it is resolved the gays will go on living their lives as they so choose.  So will the rest of us. The behavior is a part of the person and no amount of preaching nor posturing will change it. What some think needs to be 'cured' is another's normal.  If we'd spend more time caring about how we conduct our own behavior and less about others perhaps we too would 'evolve' into a more civil society.  In other words, what happens behind closed doors should stay behind closed doors.  It works.


1 comment:

Margie's Musings said...

Boy do I agree with you on this issue, Mari. What possible difference does it make if gays marry? It certainly does not weaken straight marriage. The straights have done their own job on that.