My Exercise In Futility

Congratulations, California! I feel exhilarated. It’s a far cry from how I felt back in February of 2004 when I was stopped dead in my tracks as I heard news coverage from CNN explaining George Bush’s support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Who would have ‘thunk’ that 4 years later, under the same regime, we would see the day when Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon would be able to marry in San Francisco. 

While I’m not a huge activist, this particular issue is important to me. Some might find that ironic given my previously vocalized opinions about monogamy and marriage. While I have no desire to get married, I don’t think that this is something that should be taken away from millions of others that want to. I believe this entire issue centers on an equally important issue, the separation of church and state. 

To explain, I support gay, married couples having the same rights afforded to and taken for granted by heterosexual couples. I personally don’t care if it’s called marriage or civil union, just as long as they are legally the same. In my eyes, marriage is a commitment before God, a sacrament of the church. As such, the act of getting married should not automatically grant federal and local rights to the couples participating in religious ceremonies. 

Those rights should be granted by obtaining a marriage license or commitment license if you don’t want to use the word marriage when referring to two people of the same sex living their lives together. Call it what you want, just so long as the piece of paper that my partner and I carry grants us the same rights that it carries for Robert and Julie when they get married. 

Of course as soon as one such as myself tries to make it as simple as this, you have people like Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council proclaiming that it’s ‘the beginning of the end.’ He went on further today by asking, and I’m paraphrasing:

…where do we drawn the lines? What prevents me from marrying a close sibling or having more than one wife.

I feel that if Tony were left to go on with his wondering, he would have eventually led to the inevitable question about when the gays would want to marry pets. It’s the same downhill cycle each time. Heterosexuals seem to loose all coherent thought when gay marriage pops into their heads. 

So on CNN today, Tony did what could only be described as making an ass of himself. Yet somehow, he felt victorious, that he had been able to spew his homophobic rhetoric across the airwaves. Poor Tony’s gonna be rolling over in his bed tonight, hope his boyfriend doesn’t mind. 

Regardless, HAPPY HONEYMOON TO ALL THE CALIFORNIA COUPLES WHO MARRIED TONIGHT! THANK YOU!