Funny, I remember just a year or two ago, anti-gay activists insisted that they objected to judges usurping legislative authority and creating gay marriage from the bench.
So Maine goes and does it via legislation. And now the activists announce that no, that’s bad too, because it doesn’t represent the will of the people!
So when a majority starts voting yes in these referendums—and I think it’s inevitable—what will they fall back to?
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Archive for the 'Gay rights' Category
The Maine gay-marriage debate
November 6th, 2009, 2:24 pm by fshermanDavid Pleat is here
November 2nd, 2009, 6:04 pm by fshermanHe’s running for Marti Coley’s seat. He spoke to me briefly about the amount of travel involved in a district this size.
And now Jim Wood is opening the event as its legislative sponsor. “I’d like to call this the end of the beginning–it’s taken us 25 years to get here.”
The leaders of Destin, he said, include businessmen, retirees, fishing captains, all serving for no pay and doing the best they can for the city.
And I think they’re serving the food, I may be offline for a minute or two.
Some people like sex
October 22nd, 2009, 2:27 pm by fshermanFrom an op-ed by conservative Catholic Bill Donohue published in the Washington Post:
“Sexual libertines, from the Marquis de Sade to radical gay activists, have sought to pervert society by acting out on their own perversions. What motivates them most of all is a pathological hatred of Christianity.”
Umm, I’ve actually known a few libertines and most of them are motivated by liking sex. Any hatred of Christianity, if it exists, is more in response to the efforts of right-wingers such as Donohue to stick their nose into other people’s sex lives.
Donohue’s column was too insubstantial to bother with further (and pretty much the standard whining about how evil secular liberals are out to destroy religion), but I thought I’d take at least one shot.
What a thought crime is not
October 9th, 2009, 2:13 pm by fshermanContrary to the Republicans in Congress—who are opposing legislation expanding federal hate-crimes laws to cover gays—this is not a “thought crime” bill.
It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about gays, so long as they don’t act on it.
If they’re punished for attacking gays out of hate, that’s not about “thought crimes,” it’s about motives. You know, the same thing that already differentiates first degree murder (committed with rational thought and in cold blood), second-degree murder (fueled by anger), third degree murder (accident).
So anyone who thinks that adding penalties for gay bashing is a “though crime” should support eliminating any distinctions for the three degrees of murder. Yet amazingly, they don’t.
Texas government forces gay men to stay married!
October 7th, 2009, 9:40 am by fshermanNo, I’m not kidding.
A couple of men who married in Massachusetts filed for divorce in Texas.
As detailed here, the state government is refusing to allow them to divorce on the grounds that Texas doesn’t recognize gay marriage in the first place.
Defending the rights of vile people
September 30th, 2009, 4:28 pm by fshermanA U.S. Appeals Court has ruled in favor of Westboro Baptist Church—the people who express the love of God by picketing funerals of gays and soldiers—in a lawsuit, as detailed here. The court ruled that however repellent the views of Westboro and its leader, Fred Phelps, it was still covered by the First Amendment.
I’m in favor of this, overall, though I’m surprised at the Court’s decision a piece one of the protesters posted online claiming that the soldier’s parents taught him “to defy his creator,” “raised him from the devil” and “taught him that God was a liar.” This would seem to fall into the slander category—the court’s argument it was just a hysterical hate-filled rant that couldn’t be taken as a serious statement of fact is one I’d disagree with (hysterical yes, but from these people I see no reason to think it’s an exaggeration of their views).
Still, better to err on the side of more speech than less. Even when the speakers are scum.
Speaking of absurdity
September 21st, 2009, 9:34 am by fshermanAccording to Senator Tom Coburn’s chief of staff, Michael Coburn, heterosexual porn is actually homosexual porn (courtesy of ThinkProgress):
SCHWARTZ: And one of the things that he said to me, that I think is an astonishingly insightful remark. He said, “all pornography is homosexual pornography because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards. Now think about that. And if you, if you tell an 11-year-old boy about that, do you think he’s going to want to go out and get a copy of Playboy? I’m pretty sure he’ll lose interest. That’s the last thing he wants.” You know, that’s a, that’s a good comment. It’s a good point and it’s a good thing to teach young people.”
Like I said, it’s getting harder and harder to respond to the right wing rationally. So I’ll just let this one stand on its own.
Gay marriage is not a fraud
June 18th, 2009, 10:39 am by fshermanJohn Fay of Mary Esther in today’s Daily News letter collumn: “Nothing in the definition of marriage as being between a man and a waomn prevents a homosexual couple from doing anything they want.”
Ahh, except marraige? Did you forget that, Mr. Fay?
Fay also trots out the argument that “the primary purpose and effect of marriage is to procreate and raise the next generation … no homosexual relationship has ever resulted in the procreation of a child.” Which is why married couples get tax breaks; so gays are trying to gain the benefits of marriage “without making the corresponding sacrifices.”
In point of fact, gays can adopt (admittedly not in this state). Gays can conceive via artificial insemination or other steps. So they can do their part in “raising the next generation properly” which Mr. Fay considers so important.
And of course, the marital tax breaks (other than child-care deductions) are available to all married couples, parents or not, yet I don’t see Mr. Fay leading a campaign to change that. It’s almost like his opposition to gays is shaping his view of marriage and its purpose rarther than vice versa.
Miscellanea
June 9th, 2009, 12:10 pm by fsherman•The Graham-Lieberman amendment to the supplemental war-spending bill didn’t make it into the final bill. The amendment would have given the president the power to cover up the torture photos that a court has demanded the government produce.
As Glenn Greenwald points out, the rationale for covering up the photos—they will inflame hostility against us—amounts to saying that the more horrible our actions, the more we’re entitled to keep them secret.
•The Supreme Court has decided not to tackle the military Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, but Congress is working on a bill to change the rules.
•The Supreme Court has ruled that a judge should have recused himself from a case in which the defendant had previously spent $3 million on a campaign against the incumbent whose seat the judge then took.
•A really terrific article in Christian Science Monitor about a female Pakistani playwright using theater to challenge the country’s religious right.
For once I agree with Ron Hart
June 8th, 2009, 10:14 am by fshermanRegarding his pro-gay marriage column last week.
Since I point out when he’s wrong, I figured he deserves credit when I find us on the same side.
