Heh: ObamasPlanForGayRights.com
I’m frustrated with this Administration’s inaction on gay rights, but I haven’t yet run out of patience. Andrew has, for which I don’t blame him in the least; it’s a little more Real for him, since he may well be deported in a few years if the federal policy on HIV-positive immigration and civil marriage doesn’t change.
This president, however, is the shrewdest politician of my lifetime, and has the opportunity to be the greatest president in our country’s history. I cannot believe that he personally intends to screw gay people out of their rights; he is a Democrat, after all. He’s waiting for the right time. Why that right time isn’t now, with the right-wing elements reeling and incapable of resisting, I don’t know.
I’m not even convinced that he really believes that marriage should be “between a man and a woman.” Even if he does, I think he’ll come around on it, particularly as more Americans do the same.
I’m watching the situation in Iran with absolute awe. I said earlier that I’ve never seen anything like this, and I supposed that’s not true; tearing down the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR are similar, but not even half as well communicated. Even in a country where the government is continually blocking access to websites, preventing people from reporting on the situation, news is getting out. People around the world are setting up proxy servers to enable Iranian bloggers to post pictures and videos, and as has been noted elsewhere, Twitter has finally made it clear what a spectacular application it can be.
Andrew Sullivan, it should be no surprise, has taken the lead on coverage, with links to the Twitterers on the scene, commentary on how the cable news networks have just about ignored the situation, and good snarky comments on how the Neo-Conservative movement appears to be supporting Ahmedinejad. He’s even redone his blog theme in green to show “solidarity,” a strange word to hear from a conservative blogger.
I’ve added a bunch of Iranian folks to my twitter feed and the stories they send out are insane. They’ve made it possible to find things out like Basij thugs firing AK-47s into crowds and university dormitories being assaulted by government troops. There is a downside, of course; the government is opening its own Twitter accounts to disseminate fake information. If you’re interested, look at @StopAhmadi and @change_for_iran, both of which are reportedly very real.
BTW: lest we all forget, this is why we have a Second Amendment. “But this could never happen here,” you say. You keep thinking that.
Gene Weingarten, with his usual wit, explains the filibuster:
Okay, say the Yankees and the Orioles are tied in the bottom of the ninth inning, but the Yanks have the bases loaded with nobody out, and the count on the batter is three balls, no strikes. The O’s are facing imminent defeat, but their pitcher is a wily veteran. He just stands on the mound, fidgeting and spitting and scratching himself for 22 hours and 34 minutes, refusing to throw the ball, until the umpires call the game a draw.
On the other hand, forcing the Senate to require 60 votes to do anything does probably have the effect of keeping the Senate from doing anything. That’s a win, in my book.
Andrew Sullivan is often my source for political analysis; I should probably look around for more pundits, but he tends to wrap up analysis from all over the spectrum, whether he agrees with it or not. I say this just to point out why, for roughly the 7,000th day in a row, I’m linking to him again, on the topic of this nifty gallup poll:
Andrew’s take:
If gays are really serious about marriage rights, they need to accelerate the process of coming out…
Yes, donate and campaign and blog. But for all of those of you out there who are gay and do none of this, one simple political act can do much more: let your family, friends and co-workers know who you are. If you don’t, please quit complaining about your lack of civil rights.
As a straight dude, I don’t quite have Andrew’s perspective. But he and I both live in parts of the country where homosexuality is more than tolerated; it is often embraced. I have dozens of gay friends; I like to say I was raised by a collection of gay “aunts.” If my son were to come out as gay, I’d be all for it. It’s not like that in every family on the east coast, but a gay man is certainly going to have an easier time coming out in New York or Philadelphia than, say,
Patonga, Oklahoma. (I should point out that I know nothing about Patonga, Oklahoma; it might be the West Hollywood of Blaine County, for all I know. I literally went to Google Maps and found a random city in central Oklahoma.)
Any place where the majority of the population knows no homosexuals (either because they simply don’t live there, or are closeted) is a place where a gay man or woman is least likely to want to come out. So while Andrew’s solution, “Come out, dammit,” would probably do good things over the long-term, it carries with it a pretty high personal cost for the homosexual individuals themselves.
It’s hard to tell how accurate they are, considering I don’t know much about statistics (I barely passed that course) and I’m far too lazy to check any of the cited sources, but here are some interesting figures on divorce among Christian fundamentalists. It would be hypocritical of me to point out the hypocrisy of others, but I can at least allude to it, right? Right.
This has obvious ramifications in light of the California Supreme Court’s decision upholding Proposition 8. (Those of you who are completely incensed by it, by the way, read John Scalzi on the subject; if the decision is a setback at all, it’s a pretty minor one. Andrew Sullivan, somewhat an authority, believes that seeking to affirm gay marriage rights through the courts is a mistake: it’s too easy for the conservative pundits to shout “activist judges!” Let each state, and the federal government in turn, see the light on its own. It’s better to wait 3 or 4 years and either convince enough people that gay marriage is a good thing, or wait for the bigots to die off, as they inevitably will. When the courts get involved, the conservative base tends to get riled up and do things like enact constitutional amendments, which are much harder to get rid of down the road. But back to the topic at hand.)
Does it matter if fundamentalist Christians are marginally more likely to get divorced than other demographics? Well…no. The only real bonus to it is that when someone rants about the “Death of the American Family” or some other bull, you can point out that Fundamentalism seems to be the greatest threat of all. That’s satisfying, but counter-productive: you don’t convince people that way.
In my opinion the easiest way to argue with someone who is against gay marriage is to demand specificity. When they say, “Gay marriage is bad,” ask why. When they say, “Well, because it damages the institution of marriage,” ask how. If they say “The bible says homosexuality is wrong,” ask what that has to do with secular policy. You probably won’t convince all of them, but you don’t have to: you just have to convince enough.
Go Maine!
If you ignore the fact that the federal government still refuses to recognize gay marriage, 5 out of 50 states now allow it (plus the District of Columbia). We’re getting there, people. We totally are. Sadly, Delaware may take a little while, but at least last month the General Assembly shot down a constitutional amendment to ban civil marriage, so my home state’s not entirely bass ackwards.
