“I was wrong.”
Many civil marriages are not considered “holy matrimony” by religious institutions because they do not conform to the rules of the religious institution. Those marriages have not challenged religious liberty. We must see that civil marriage, which has always been separate from religious marriage, will remain so.
But most important, gays and lesbians have suffered too long from legal discrimination, social marginalization and even violence. They are entitled to clear recognition of their equal status as citizens of a country that is founded on the principle that we are all inherently worthy. By delivering a clear message that same-sex couples can no longer be treated as separate and unequal in New York, we will also reduce discrimination in everyday life. We will all be better for that.
TOM SUOZZI, “Why I Now Support Gay Marriage”, New York Times, June 12, 2009
As a gay libber, I was never a big fan of marriage (though, being a good Christian boy, it was how I was raised, à la ex-Miss California), and I would have never dreamed that something as backward and archaic as institutionalized marriage would become our great equalizer. Surprise. People still wanna “make it legal”. It remains our primary public display of celebrating/declaring our great loves (and alternately, our big mistakes). Everybody should be given the right to fuck it up, repeatedly.
There’s really only one reason this remains at issue. Bigoted, non-gay (in every sense of the word) people, often religious, simply don’t want to say it’s okay. “It’s not okay, it’s wrong.” They say it’s not them, it’s their god that doesn’t approve (I can’t imagine a god who cares whether you match penises or vulvas when it comes to sex, romance, or choosing life partners—people find/fall out of love and make babies and other messes in all kinds of ways—that ain’t gonna change). No, they just don’t want to tell their little Bobbie or Billy it’s okay if you want to marry a boy or a girl and that gender isn’t an issue. Marriage is between “one man and one woman”, because, god forbid, anyone might ever think, even imagine, it could be anything other than “straight”. ( “C’mon guys, what are you asking me here?!” ) And I’ve tasted enough married straight men to know that goes without question.*
Poor believers, bearers of “the truth”. The same damning believers who have crossed continents for centuries to practice their religious bent—who kill/terrorize others who don’t—fighting the good/god fight all the way to the destruction of all mankind for their rapturous, o-so-holy beliefs. Suicide believers who kill/die with the same cry of “not I, but god”, destroying the love/lives of all who aren’t like-minded, of the faith. Are different.
Yes, I’m speaking to you “one way” [American] Christian “soldier” (and you too, Catholic follower of “The Rat”). And you, bloody Muslim whose sharia law stones lovers to death. And you, intolerant orthodox Jew.
The whole sufferable, murderous unholy bunch of you. You and your puny, selfish, hateful, ugly, little-piddly-assed-no-good, “god”.
This world has suffered you and your abject puniness for far, far, far too long.
You are so ten minutes ago.
_____
Cartoon: Mr. Fish
Why I Recently Walked Away From Christianity
How extraordinarily dangerous love is
*Come to think of it, being Canadian, I’ve tasted a fair share of gay married men, too. And priests. And firemen (gay, straight, “other”, of various faiths, races, backgrounds). Past the initial lick, they all taste about the same. D—lish!
