Pictured Kate Clinton.
'Heterosexuals still uneasy with same-sex marriage often ask, 'Why marriage? Why can't you have all the rights and benefits and just call it something else?' Our answer is simple: Because then it would be something else.' — Syndicated columnist Deb Price who recently married her wife, Joyce Murdoch, in Canada,
in her Dec. 22 column.
'Recently I wrote a column arguing that there is growing evidence that
homosexuality has a biological basis, and that this is one more reason not to discriminate against people on
the basis of whom they love. The result was a torrent of fire and brimstone from readers who are aghast at gay
marriage, and who accuse me of blasphemy for defending vile behavior that they say God is on record as
denouncing. Never mind that the Bible also advises that people who work on the Sabbath should be stoned to
death (Numbers 15:35) and condones the beating of slaves 'since the slave is the owner's property' (Exodus
21:21). Somehow it's only the anti-gay bits that seem engraved in stone.' — Nicholas D. Kristof, in the Dec. 3
New York Times.
'Yet surprisingly few readers raised the most obvious question: if homosexuality is partly
genetic, why are there so many gays? After all, gays are presumably less likely to engage in heterosexual
pairings—the behavior that passes down genes. So if there are genes linked to homosexuality ... then how
have they been passed down to our day? Scientists have offered a range of theories. One is that gays might
not have been fecund baby-producers, but that they guarded their nephews and nieces from saber-toothed
tigers and thus helped ensure the survival of closely related genes. Another theory is that gays have unusually
strong sex drives, and that while most of this energy has been wasted on nonreproductive flings, enough goes
toward male-female pairings that the genes are passed on. Both theories have largely been discounted. One
clue to a more subtle theory is that other primates, including close relatives like the bonobos, often engage in
homosexual behavior, apparently as a way of forming alliances. Bonobos curry favor by performing oral sex on
others of the same gender, even though they also seize every opportunity to mate with those of the opposite
sex. It may be that for bonobos ... an inclination to engage in homosexual sex conferred Darwinian advantages
by helping to gain favor and protection from group leaders. But the pattern fits bonobos better than it does
human males: bonobos appear primarily heterosexual or bisexual, while some human males (more than
females, some scholars say) seem hard-wired to be exclusively gay.' — Kristof.
'A 1958 poll found that 96
percent of whites disapproved of marriages between blacks and whites (Deuteronomy 7:3 condemns
interracial marriages). In 1959 a judge justified Virginia's ban on interracial marriage by declaring that
'Almighty God ... did not intend for the races to mix.' Someday, we will regard opposition to gay marriage as
equally obtuse and old-fashioned.' — Kristof.
'You see, these days, when it comes to guys who are
attractive to girls, gay is good. In fact, it's better. Think about it. If you watch Sex and the City, all the gay
characters are angelic, while the straight guys are irredeemably dysfunctional. ... The fact is, gay culture is now
just part of the culture—and in many ways it is perceived as the key to aspirational lifestyle. How times have
changed! ... [T]here's the captain of the England football team, who according to his wife walks around the
house boasting 'I'm a gay icon,' and thinks nothing of braiding his hair and wearing a Gaultier skirt. Oh all right,
a sarong, but it's hardly the style of Tony Adams or Bryan Robson.' — Financial Times, Dec. 29, 2003.
'Of
course, ever since Oscar Wilde, we've known that gay men are pretty and witty, but until fairly recently gay
culture was considered by most British blokes to be alien.' — Financial Times.
'Mad Vow Disease, once
limited to wholesome, unimpeachable gay couples earnestly seeking to take on the rights and responsibilities
of marriage, has jumped the pen and crossed into the general population. There the unfortunate symptoms
are frothing apocalypticism, fractured reasoning, knee jerking, and involuntary eye rolling. It ain't pretty.' —
Lesbian comic Kate Clinton in The Progressive, January 2004.
'In the midst of all this marriage
mishegas, one of my best friends was dealing with the sad-beyond-sad details of the death of her partner of
twenty-seven years, a woman who thought marriage was an abomination and who often joked that 'married' is
'marred' with an I. The day my in-box overflowed with messages about the Massachusetts decision, I received
two e-mails from my friend. In her morning note, she told me she had just gotten a call from Human
Resources at the university where they both taught. They were holding her partner's last paycheck and needed
an affidavit from a RECOGNIZED (her caps) next of kin to release it. That afternoon, she e-mailed me that New
York State laws say that even if someone has filed a will, you have to send a letter requesting a waiver of
contest of will to the next of kin. That meant, in this case, to her partner's mother, who had fought with my friend
over care and do-not-resuscitate orders during her partner's year-long battle with a brain tumor. Apparently, we
do need a piece of paper from the City Hall. Not to keep us tried and true. But to claim our due.' — Clinton.
'In our times, a misunderstood sense of rights has sometimes disturbed the nature of the family institution
and conjugal bond itself. It is necessary that at every level, the efforts of those who believe in the importance of
the family based on matrimony unite.' — Pope John Paul II Dec. 26. The Vatican defines marriage as a sacred
union between man and woman. In July, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a
document saying Catholic politicians had a 'moral duty' to oppose laws granting legal rights to gay couples,
AP said.
'The religious conservative right and its followers have made it sound like there is something
wrong with the GLBT society. They have accused the agenda of the GLBT society as negative for America. I say
what is wrong with this agenda is it is based on our history of freedom and equal rights. It is no different than
the agenda of equality and freedom supported by great men like Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Thomas
Jefferson and others who signed our Declaration of Independence and formed our Constitution. Today it is the
religious conservative right like the Traditional Values Coalition and its affiliates destroying the ideals of
equality and freedom. The GLBT members in Rapid City are fine outstanding people. All they want is respect
and a right to live without fear from hate and discrimination. I for one am proud to be a member of this group.'
— Coming-out letter from City Councilman Tom Murphy to the Rapid City Journal, Dec. 30.
'It was the year
of living erroneously. Where, after all, are the prizes that the West's Mesopotamian adventure was designed to
find? The weapons of mass destruction ... have not yet been found.' — Gay writer Andrew Sullivan in Time
Magazine Dec. 29.
'In this era of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Elton John singing with Eminem at the
Grammy Awards, and Nathan Lane voicing cartoon characters, is it no longer considered, well, queer for
straight guys to hang out with gay guys?' — Allan Johnson writing in the Chicago Tribune Dec. 21.
'If you're
[resistant to it], open your eyes up and give yourself a chance at meeting some incredible people who can
bring a lot to your life. ... Put the sexual preference aside, and just think: How many loser [gays] do you run
across? Gay guys are usually well-dressed, have good jobs, are respected members of the community. I
mean, they bring a lot to the party ... [including] the decorations and the catering.' — Actor Lenny Clarke, 50,
from ABC's It's All Relative. He plays a Boston pub owner 'who makes no secret of his bonehead views about
his son's (Reid Scott) engagement to a woman (Maggie Lawson) who has two dads (John Benjamin Hickey
and Christopher Sieber, who is gay in real life),' said the Tribune.
'There's very little to show that gay men
hit on straight men, unless there is some confusion over the sexual identity of either one. I mean, straight men
are very rarely the target of gay men.' — Dr. Robert Johnson, chair of Kent State University's sociology
department, to the Tribune.
'Unless they isolate themselves in some enclave, they're going to be forced to
have relationships that work. Sometimes gay men will avoid straight friendships, particularly at a time, say,
when they're coming out, when they're fearful of how straight men might react to them. But once gay men
become comfortable with their identities, they also see it as a necessity to associate with straight men and
women. ... Now it's more chic and less [of a stigma] to be gay, and especially with heterosexual women
hanging out around [them]. There are straight men who hang around with gay men because good-looking
straight women like to hang around with them too. So they see it as an opportunity.' — Johnson.
