The Economist (2/28-3/5) has 'The Case for Gay Marriage' on its cover and its leader (we would say lead editorial) has some rather cutting things to say about Mr. Bush's anti-gay sentiments: 'So at last it is official: George Bush is in favor of unequal rights, big-government intrusiveness and federal power' (rather than states' rights). All this because of his proposed anti-gay marriage amendment. And it tells G.B. II to stop making snarky remarks about 'activist judges' who after all gave him his job in 2000.
From the 'Are-We-Surprised?' file: the Chicago Tribune (3/1) reports Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan 'deriding gay relationships' in his annual Saviours' Day speech.
Several political cartoons: one from the Chicago Sun-Times (2/29) has the founding fathers in heaven looking puzzled as Ben Franklin says 'He's proposing a constitutional amendment banning WHAT?' The Chicago Trib (3/1) has the same group (plus G.B. II) writing 'We the straight people ... .'
From the 'One-Cheer' file the Chicago Sun-Times (2/28) quotes the Catholic Church's Cardinal Francis George re the report on the pedophile scandal, 'Homosexuals are normally, I'm told, attracted to homosexual men, not to children, so it's unfair to homosexuals, to the gay community to scapegoat them.'
The N.Y. Times (2/28) in an article on (what else?) gay marriage and Evangelicals says that it may be surprising to some, but that not all conservative Christians are a monolithic bloc on the subject of homosexuality. Out of the deep south Evangelicals are often conflicted on the subject due to gay relatives or friends. A sample quote, 'If there was a gay lifeguard, and I was drowning and could not swim, send the lifeguard.'
The Chicago Sun-Times' resident 'phobe, Mark Steyn writes (on 2/29) re the Democratic presidential frontrunner, 'If I were Teresa Heinz Kerry I'd be worried, now that Massachusetts is introducing gay marriage, that hubby may start giving the come-hither look to some of the state's elderly bachelor billionaires.'
The Chicago Trib Sunday magazine (2/15) has a gent lamenting that while never a metrosexual or homosexual, he has recently gymmed himself back to six-pack abs, sings tenor in a light opera company (where make-up is de rigeuer), and has always loved Judy Garland. He says, 'Just call me a skinny old queen who happens to be straight. But a metrosexual? Never.'
