That Dweam Wiffin A Dweam

[(A letter to my sexy-sexagenarian gay cousin and his partner after they forwarded me Mark Morford's excellent thoughts on yesterday's decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court...]

[Hi, Peter and Bill-]

[Thanks for forwarding this along. I had happened already to read it, during my obsessive-compulsive internet readaround in the wake of yesterday's decision (Mark Morford writes for the San Francisco Chronicle, so I read his hilarious and true commentary regularly.)]

[The truth, as usual, is that the issue isn't what either the Republicans or the Democrats who oppose gay marriage says it is, because no one is able to pinpoint what it is about same-sex marriage that endangers the institution itself. The issue for cultural conservatives is, has always been, and always will be, that gays and lesbians simply sicken and terrify them, and any forward strides for our rights must be opposed in the cruelest, most scorched-earth way possible. The issue for Democrats like Tom Daschle, the Clintons, and all the presidential candidates who oppose gay marriage (i.e., all but the most left-leaning, who have little chance of getting the nomination), is fear of alienating the political center, upon whom they rely to get elected.]

[I don't actually believe members of the second group privately oppose same-sex marriage; their positions are based on cold, hard polling data. For all I know, a lot of Republicans privately feel the same, à la Barry Goldwater. Until more mainstream Democrats (and even a few moderate Republicans) make the courageous move to support same-sex marriage rights and show the political will to do something about it in the executive and legislative arenas, moderate American opinion on this issue won't change, and the courts are the only place where our civil rights might be honored.]

[Hope all's well with both of you,
On-His-Soapbox Cousin Bill Sharp]

[(That last paragraph explains why the courts must have the last word on what's constitutional, contrary to the increasingly shrill anti-judiciary rhetoric, as even Andrew Sullivan concedes.)]

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