I don't get it

[altivo]

NJ legislature passes gay marriage bill. NJ governor promptly vetoes it. Didn't we see this same pattern a few years ago in California? And what happened then? There is no question in my mind but that there WILL be civil gay marriage across the US eventually, and it looks to me as if it will happen a lot sooner than I expected. Right wingers who keep fighting it are just making themselves look foolish in the end.

Meanwhile, in Maryland, the assembly debates a gay marriage bill and finally shuts up and votes on it. Unlike last year's failure, this time it passes. The state senate has passed gay marriage before, and will surely do so again, and the governor promises to sign it. So what will happen next in MD? Of course the Catholic and Mormon churches will spend a fortune on lies and negative ads to get a ballot initiative passed to kill the law. And haven't we seen that too? Of course we have, in California. And what happened there?

They just don't get it. The culture war is over on this front, defeat for the narrow minded is inevitable. The longer they fight, the worse it will be for everyone, themselves included.

Comments

[soanos]

Let us hope the fight will be over soon and everyone can marry whoever they want. With or without the church.

All I would like is to be able to call my chosen companion my husband or spouse. And have equal rights to the "normal" couples. I don't mind if the church refuses it, I don't belong to one, though. I know marriage is possible outside a church too.

Let's hope the "right wingers" will understand that it is no use to fight the progression.

[altivo]

I'm afraid they never will understand. When someone like Newt Gingrich, who has been divorced multiple times and caught repeatedly in sexual affairs outside his marriage can criticise gay marriage as "an insult and threat" to traditional marriage... and he gets away with that, then there's just no way that conservatives in the US are ever going to grow up and learn the rules.

[soanos]

Hmm. That's odd. So basically these people in question don't think extra-marital affairs are no big deal as long as the "round peg goes to the round hole"? Not to mention divorcing?

Maybe this Newt guy should be reminded that he has already made mockery of their oh-so-sacred concept of marriage.
To me it seems there is a bit of a double-standard in action here, or they are just making the rules up as they go along, like some kids on the playground playing tag. "That doesn't count, I was standing on one foot!"

[hrrunka]

It seems they're determined to fight all the way, on this and other issues, and the folks they hurt along the way can go burn in hell as far as they're concerned...

I don't get it, either.

[altivo]

As I said yesterday on twitter, conservatives seem to think "freedom of religion" only applies to their own particular brand of religion, and don't understand that it also means they have no right to force their religious beliefs onto everyone else in society.

You don't believe in contraception, fine, don't use it. But that doesn't mean it's an infringement on your "rights" if someone else does use it.

You don't believe in gay marriage, OK. You don't have to attend a ceremony, or hold one. But that doesn't mean it infringes on your rights if someone else does support or accept it.

Somehow they just can't get this through their solid rock heads.

Orthodox Jews don't eat pork, but they don't try to make it illegal for anyone to eat pork. Muslims believe that women should be all covered up in public, but they aren't allowed to enforce that on non-Muslim women, at least not in our society here.

But so-called "Christians" think their particular rules apply to everyone, believer or not, church member or not, and should carry the force of law. This is just stupid.

[soanos]

*Is getting VERY confused by the way an American Christian thinks*

My brain is full of *beep*.

So let me get this straight... This is basically equivalent to some people seeing me eat brand X cereal and telling me I am infringing on their rights because they believe in the TV-advertisements of brand Y.

*Brain implodes*

[altivo]

That's exactly what it's like. And many politicians and voters in the US seem to think this is perfectly normal and acceptable.

They are outraged at the "theocracies" of the Middle East where Islamic law is forced on everyone, yet they want the US to be a theocracy where fundamentalist Christian teachings are forced on everyone by law. Of course, their notion of "God's law" is bizarre and selective as well. So they want to enforce some parts of the biblical canon as they see it, while ignoring many other parts.