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November 18, 2003
Love, actually
Twenty minutes ago, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that denying gay and lesbian couples the right to marry is unconstitutional. The ruling is similar to those in Vermont, Hawaii, and Alaska, which make gay marriage constitutionally legal but haven't ordered marriage licenses to be issued to gay couples who want them. Now it goes to the legislature, who can honor or muddy this decision however they choose.
We don't think we need to detail our feelings on this issue, but in case you hadn't figured it out, we are without exception absolutely in favor of full and complete rights for gay people and gay couples, and feel with every ounce of our being that gay relationships should not be distinguished in any way from straight ones.
We are not, however, going to explain why. If you agree, you know why. If you don't agree, you obviously have fundamentally different values, and will not be convinced by anything we say. Just as anything you'd say wouldn't have even the smallest chance of convincing us to feel otherwise. Which of course is the problem with everything right now.
We really are starting to see it as an unconquerable situation. We are just as set in our beliefs on salient issues as the rightiest of righties. To claim we are more "open-minded" in the strict sense of the term would be lying-- there is no chance in hell of changing our views on gay marriage, the death penalty, choice, etc. We can claim that we have well-thought-out rationales for each belief, and in fact have written more than enough academic papers on them. But were we to have a different worldview, we're sure we could write up equally well-thought-out rationales for the opposing beliefs. Well, except for opposing gay marriage. We're pretty sure only ignorance and misplaced fear are to blame for that one. But anyway, our point is that there are certain issues for which meeting half-way is impossible, and that's why we're all a little screwed right now.
So, semi-bravo to the SJC, which took the moral high-ground without solving a damn thing. But hey, baby steps.
Posted by The Twins at November 18, 2003 10:53 AM
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Comments
hell, that's awesome news. i've gotta send that along to my sister. i would love to see her be able to marry the woman she loves (legally) someday. and i'm in agreement with you. sometimes there's no middle ground to an issue. ah well.
Posted by: kat at November 18, 2003 02:52 PM
yeah, i don't see what the big deal is. why not let those who want same sex marriages marry? it's not like those who want hetero marriages will be forced to marry someone of the same sex someday! what could be the wrong in letting people have the freedom of choice?
the entire argument that america is somehow responsible peoples' morals via lawmaking is ludacris. since when is making something illegal influencing anyone towards a more "righteous" path?
Posted by: snowy at November 19, 2003 04:59 PM