More on marriage equality

Time to follow up a bit on yesterday’s post. First with a few quick things:

Erin’s comment is really important. Even though the situation she’s describing is one I had already suggested must be happening, it’s more powerful to hear about real people suffering it. There’s a broader lesson about storytelling here, but in the specific context it’s just a reminder that we are talking about real peoples’ lives being ruined, not just some vague ideal.
Here’s a beautiful post by someone much more directly affected by yesterday’s vote than me, who yet managed to be far more compassionate in his response: A challenge to both sides of the Amendment One debate. His is the example to follow, not mine.
And this piece argues, very plausibly I think, that the broad generational shift away from homophobia is happening within Christian groups too. Most encouragingly of all, it seems to be part of a broader shift away from any interest in pursuing the Culture Wars, even among young people who are highly conservative in their personal morality. I wish we could fast forward that trend by a few decades, but at least it brings the end into sight.

But the big news is that as I was writing yesterday’s post, Obama finally came out in favour of gay marriage. Now obviously this is progress. He’s the first U.S. President to say such a thing, and many people seem to be overjoyed about it. But all I can find it in myself to respond with is “What took you so long?”, or as a friend put it:

I’m supposed to be happy that someone supposedly progressive stopped being a bigot years late?

— Eleanor Saitta (@Dymaxion) May 9, 2012

I’m honestly not sure how much of my annoyance is (or should be) directed at Obama here, and how much at the electorate that makes this still a somewhat risky position to have taken, but either way it’s clouding any sense of triumph.

Profile cancel