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Ostracized for my protection? I don't think so.
Copy this sentence into your LiveJournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.
Come March, my wife and I will have been married for 18 years. Not once during that lengthy span of time have I ever felt my marriage threatened by the actions of other individuals, be they gay, straight, undecided, experimental, or whatever. The notion that allowing two consenting adults who just happen to be of the same sex to share their lives -- and to have that union recognized by the government -- would do irreparable harm to the institution of marriage is, in a word, bullshit.
As I once wrote in my LJ on this topic:
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Gays getting married doesn't "weaken the institution." Heterosexuals not taking seriously the commitment they've made, either before God, the Justice of the Peace, or Elvis at the Chapel O' Love in Vegas, weakens the institution. Heterosexuals going through life acting as though a marriage has all the same inherent responsibilities as maintaining your video rental membership weakens the institution. Heterosexuals fucking around on their spouses weakens the institution. So, shut up about what weakens the institution; you're boring the shit out of me. Also, I'm not impressed with anything any Catholic priest has to say on this issue. Get your house in order, stop diddling your acolytes or covering up for those who do, and then -- maybe -- we'll talk.
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For me, whether to allow gays to marry and receive all the benefits marriage brings (including some big-ticket items like being able to adopt a kid, getting a joint health insurance plan, visiting your partner in the ICU at the hospital, or receiving death benefits upon the loss of that partner, just to name a few off the top of my head), boils down to simple points: You either are for equal protection without discrimination under the law for all citizens, or you're not. You either support freedom for all, or you don't. Period.
In fact, if you don't, then so far as I'm concerned, you're a traitor to the bedrock principles on which this country was founded. Get the fuck out.
Come March, my wife and I will have been married for 18 years. Not once during that lengthy span of time have I ever felt my marriage threatened by the actions of other individuals, be they gay, straight, undecided, experimental, or whatever. The notion that allowing two consenting adults who just happen to be of the same sex to share their lives -- and to have that union recognized by the government -- would do irreparable harm to the institution of marriage is, in a word, bullshit.
As I once wrote in my LJ on this topic:
-----
Gays getting married doesn't "weaken the institution." Heterosexuals not taking seriously the commitment they've made, either before God, the Justice of the Peace, or Elvis at the Chapel O' Love in Vegas, weakens the institution. Heterosexuals going through life acting as though a marriage has all the same inherent responsibilities as maintaining your video rental membership weakens the institution. Heterosexuals fucking around on their spouses weakens the institution. So, shut up about what weakens the institution; you're boring the shit out of me. Also, I'm not impressed with anything any Catholic priest has to say on this issue. Get your house in order, stop diddling your acolytes or covering up for those who do, and then -- maybe -- we'll talk.
-----
For me, whether to allow gays to marry and receive all the benefits marriage brings (including some big-ticket items like being able to adopt a kid, getting a joint health insurance plan, visiting your partner in the ICU at the hospital, or receiving death benefits upon the loss of that partner, just to name a few off the top of my head), boils down to simple points: You either are for equal protection without discrimination under the law for all citizens, or you're not. You either support freedom for all, or you don't. Period.
In fact, if you don't, then so far as I'm concerned, you're a traitor to the bedrock principles on which this country was founded. Get the fuck out.
I'm not married, but you might've seen the MySpace Bulletin I wrote about Proposition 8, where I explained why I'm deleting the homophobes I encountered there. I'll probably be putting some version of that up around here in the near future.
Thank you.