Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Stinger and Amanda Discuss Prop 8
I'm really going to try to avoid politics on the blog for a few days, but that doesn't mean that political discussions don't take place elsewhere. My brother the Stinger has a post up at his place concerning Proposition 8, which also references a post from Amanda at Memeopolis. Go read both -- even if you don't agree with them, they both have a take worth considering.
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The gay marriage issue is a difficult one. Poll after poll would seem to indicate that civil unions, essentially legal status without the official word marriage would be acceptable to the majority of the people in the majority of the states.
Unfortunately, most gay groups do not feel that the civil union status is enough, so they continue to push for full blown marriage, which has goes directly against church teachings in many faiths.
I can understand the feelings of people on both sides, but the problem is that every time that gay marriage is put to a vote in a country that is supposed to be a democracy, it does not seem to be able to pass, even in California.
People who support gay marriage need to be cogniscent of the facts and the votes. The guess here is that taking on religeous groups directly will only result in firestorm of response from the groups. This firestorm may force many of the genuinely ambivalent to the opposite side, making subsequent votes even more lop-sided.
The take it all or nothing strategy may ultimately work, but it also may result in an overall backlash against gay causes and gay rights.
I'm not gay, so I don't pretent to understand the issue from the inside, but I am a pragmatist. It seems to me that if most state would be willing to accept civil unions, why not accept this status for now, and hope that given time, our society can continue to evolve. This is just a thought from one of the many ambivalent straight people out there. As stated, I'm generally ambivalent on the subject, so I'd be happy to hear comments from the other side of the matter.
As a footnote, I'd have put this comment on the Stinger Nation web site, but he doesn't allow anonymous blogging.
Anonymous has a point, and believe it or not Elton John agrees with him/her.
As the proprietor of Stinger Nation, I decided to not allow anonymous comments because I have seen a few spam comments here, particularly cut-and-paste jobs about us leaving the UN and such, so I avoid that whole thing by not allowing anonymous comments. I also believe that if I put my name to my posts there, people who comment on them should put their name (or at least a "username") to their comments. But hey, no big deal. Thanks for reading.
By the way, thanks for the link, Mark...I appreciate it!
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