Thursday, February 19, 2004
THE MENACE OF GAY MARRIAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Copyright (c) 2004 The Los Angeles Times)
Oh. Never mind.
This is the first of the gay marriages in San Francisco, by the way.
As I've said before, I'd like to be middle-of-the-road on this. Since I don't think the government should be in the business of deciding what's sacred, I don't think the government should be in the business of deciding who can and can't participate in "holy" matrimony. The government can be in the civil unions business: making sure that Phyllis (79, left) and Del (right, 83) can visit each other in the hospital, inherit, and have the other rights that spouses have. That's the position Vermont took, and Howard Dean took, and I think that, in a rational world, that's still the position I'd like to take. In addition, I'd leave the question of what civil unions look like up to the states. The whole question can be handled in the Federalist framework the Framers set up. If you want polygamy, move to Utah. And so forth.
And I have to say I'm really hopeful that the majority of the American people are going to have a sense of fair play and decency on this one. (Never forget that Clinton's popularity was never higher than when the Republicans were being most true to their thuggish selves.)
Because of the great courage and dignity of hundreds of thousands of gays coming out over the past decades, there are hundreds of thousands of American mothers and fathers who will have to ask themselves: "Would I want my gay child to have the joys (and sorrows) of the marriage that I have had?" I think, on reflection, most will answer "Yes." (I'd hope that Richard Gephardt and Dick Cheney would be in that number.)
Maybe that "Yes" answer will involve the sacrifice of cherished pictures of how the world should be. If so, and if the country is going to be divided on this, I'm on the side of those who sacrifice their pictures of the world in favor of the children that they love.
But maybe Bush and Rove aren't going to let me be middle-of-the-road. If so: "Bring it on."
UPDATE: Now San Francisco is going to court to protect their married gays.
