Munch, Munch

Alas.  Once again, the computer ate posts after fair labor on my part. My apologies - but - neither the time nor the inclination to do over.

Of the last day or two, however,this message I find to be most important.

America needs more marriages, not fewer, and the best way to encourage marriage is to encourage marriage, which is what society does by bringing gay couples inside the tent. A good way to discourage marriage, on the other hand, is to tarnish it as discriminatory in the minds of millions of young Americans. Conservatives who object to redefining marriage risk redefining it themselves, as a civil-rights violation.

There are two ways to see the legal marriage of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. One is as the start of something radical: an experiment that jeopardizes millennia of accumulated social patrimony. The other is as the end of something radical: an experiment in which gay people were told that they could have all the sex and love they could find, but they could not even think about marriage. If I take the second view, it is on conservative – in fact, traditional – grounds that gay souls and straight society are healthiest when sex, love and marriage all walk in step.

Much evidence exists demonstrating that our sexual orientation is fairly fixed.  It might be easier to "change our race" through plastic surgery than it is to alter the mates to whom we are attracted.

Let's not tell the minority of our fellow citizens who happen to fall in love with someone of the same sex that they must be marginalized and live on the edges of our society.  Let's extend to them the same benefits and responsibilities that the rest of us enjoy and try to follow.

If we do, it will be better for them.  It will be better for you and me, too.

Comments

[Greg]

Wow something we both can agree on. Now if we could get those on the Republican side to stop demonizing gay marriage, to get government to stay out of the business of two people loving each other I would be happy. What ever happened to the mantra of limited government, except of course when it come to gay marriage and new Constitutional Amendments.

At the same time if we could also get those weak knee Democrats to stop trying to cater to those on the Right and to stand up for what should be a basic principle we could be rid of this silly debate.

[Peg]

Greg, you surely are correct that Democrats in general are more supportive of gay rights than are Republicans.

Nevertheless, if you look at the leading Democratic candidates for president - and now the presumptive candidate, Barack Obama, neither stated that they were in support of gay marriage.

Rather than trying to demonize one party over another on this issue, I simply try to urge others to appreciate why I believe as I do.

If you really believe as you say, too - I recommend that you adopt my position. Try to convince people; not to alienate them.