A reader writes:
Dear Dr. Liberal,
I’m having a little trouble getting worked up about the passage of Proposition 8 in California which made same sex marriage illegal. I’m as liberal as they come, but this is a democracy and the voters of California have spoken. Right? Also, I guess I don’t get what is so great about marriage in the first place. Civil unions seem to work fine to me and they don’t get everyone in a tizzy. Does this line of thinking make a lousy liberal?
Not Freaked in Felton
Dear Not Freaked,
Lousy? Maybe. But I guess it is easy for you to be blasé in the liberal bastion of Felton Delaware. I kid. Actually, I really see where you are coming from because you forgot one additional reason to not be freaked out. It is pretty much a done deal that gay marriage is going to be no big whoop in about ten years. The kids don’t seem to mind it and as more and more gays turn up on your local PTA executive committee and as candidates for Insurance Commissioner, the people who really hate the gays are becoming America’s fastest shrinking minority. I see the California “yes on prop 8” voters sitting in their horse and buggies shaking their little fists at those newfangled automobiles. It is all over but the flouting.
Having said that, there are a couple of reasons that people are pretty pissed off about the passage of this backward looking proposition, and they are things you should consider. For one thing, Churches lied their asses off to pass the thing. (Just like Christ would have wanted them to do.) There were lots of TV ads and direct mail mailers claiming that churches would be forced to hold gay marriage ceremonies regardless of the churches teachings on the topic. That was and is a flat out lie. Churches can marry or not mary anybody they want.
For another thing the gay marriage question was settled by a CA Supreme Court decision and having that decision overturned by a a dishonest campaign funded by deep pocketed out of state interests blows. Finally, although the distinction between “civil union” and “marriage” seems semantic to you and me – it isn’t semantic to a whole lot of people and so my sense of Christian charity compels me to defer to them on the topic.
I hope that helps you get your rage on.
Sincerly,
Dr. Liberal