Jonathan Rauch and David Blankenhorn have co-written an op-ed on gay marriage. It’s somewhat like seeing Nancy Pelosi and Rick Santorum co-write on abortion. If there’s a conservative way to integrate gay families into the law, this is it:
We take very different positions on gay marriage. We have had heated debates on the subject. Nonetheless, we agree that the time is ripe for a deal that could give each side what it most needs in the short run, while moving the debate onto a healthier, calmer track in the years ahead.
It would work like this: Congress would bestow the status of federal civil unions on same-sex marriages and civil unions granted at the state level, thereby conferring upon them most or all of the federal benefits and rights of marriage. But there would be a condition: Washington would recognize only those unions licensed in states with robust religious-conscience exceptions, which provide that religious organizations need not recognize same-sex unions against their will. The federal government would also enact religious-conscience protections of its own. All of these changes would be enacted in the same bill.
Read it all. (H/T)
Hubbard posted this at 10:32 AM EST on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 as Here and Queer, Kulturkampf
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Karol—
I always believed you were born gay, even before that became the only acceptable opinion on homosexuality.
I now know FOUR gay people who have “gone straight” and married women.
I also know one straight guy who, after a bad break-up with a woman, decided to only date men.
What’s up with that?
Sexual orientation is complicated. My own theory is that it’s shaped both by genes and the environment. One ex-boyfriend of mine has since married a woman; I’ve lost touch with him and have no idea if they’re still together. (No comments from the peanut gallery about how I turned him straight, please. First, I’ve probably heard it already; second, this man had quite a few other issues.) I also dated a transman for a time; when a friend asked me if this made me gay or straight, I suggested that either way I was queer.
I don’t think that “born gay” is the only acceptable opinion on homosexuality, but activists on both sides are intent on framing the issue as either involuntary or voluntary. That something can be complicated is too advanced an idea for the gay and anti-gay rights activist alike.
Hubbard posted this at 1:11 PM EST on Monday, December 29th, 2008 as Here and Queer
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Conor has thrown out a question: will same-sex marriage undermine religious liberty? My answer: Very possibly.
Catholic charities in Massachusetts once handled many adoptions, and they refused to place children in the homes of same-sex couples, which got them sued. When they lost the lawsuit and the court said they could not “discriminate” against same-sex couples, the Catholic charities shut down rather than be forced to go against their faith.
Hypothetical question: could a same-sex couple get married in a Catholic church? The church would argue that since they don’t recognize same-sex unions, they could not. Quite a few gay Catholics would love to pick a fight over this. As surely as George W. Bush will mangle the English language, someone is going to file a lawsuit about this.
Elizabeth Scalia (aka the Anchoress) foresaw this question and proposed a thoughtful and humane way to deal with it:
[T]he churches should reconsider their roles in authenticating marriage. Governments issue birth certificates; churches issue baptismal certificates. Governments issue death certificates; churches pray the funerals. Governments issue divorces; Churches annul. Both work within their separate and necessary spheres, serving the corporeal and the spiritual. It is only in the issue of marriage that church and state have commingled authority. That should perhaps change, and soon. Let the government certify and the churches sanctify according to their rites and sacraments.
Given that expensive litigation is as American as arrested development, we probably won’t do it her way. Let the ugly begin.
Hubbard posted this at 10:03 AM EST on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 as Faith, Here and Queer
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Some years ago, Camille Paglia rightly ripped gay activists: Read the rest of this entry »
Hubbard posted this at 11:30 AM EST on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 as Here and Queer
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