Why my initial thoughts on the Obama gay marriage announcement are wrong

Yesterday, Barack Obama declared that his position on gay marriage has evolved, and where once he thought civil unions were sufficient, he’s decided, rightly, that they are not, and has made possibly the clearest and most supportive statement on the matter that any president has ever made.

Critics have contended that civil unions are another way of saying “separate but equal”, only, you know, without the “equal” part. It is effectively a form of soft bigotry to say that one type of life partner contract is allowed to be called “marriage” while this other type is not, for reasons completely unfathomable to anyone but the theists who draw the line in the sand at their personal definition of marriage — a relationship sanctified by a member of their clergy and thus accepted in the eyes of God. There are, of course, legal ramifications as well, but people seem to care more about their precious words.

And while many individual members of many religious organizations would have no problem with declaring that their God has no problem with gays getting married, others obviously find it some sort abomination, owing to their particular readings of the religious traditions they hold dear. The parallels with the religiously-motivated opposition to interracial marriage are obvious and palpable. With good reason — the situations are practically identical.

Despite this good news, my initial reaction — and I suspect many of your initial reactions as well — were deeply cynical.
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Why my initial thoughts on the Obama gay marriage announcement are wrong
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Barber/Staver: Dan Savage poisoning kids against “believers in normal sexuality”

From the introduction saying Dan Savage talks dirty to children, through the claim that heteronormalcy is under attack and that gay people are effectively bullying people who “believe in normal sexuality” by trying to create legislation to get them to stop bullying gay people, this video pretty much shows exactly how little of the moral landscape these people understand.

We are near the tipping point, and people like Matt Barber and Mat Staver are the ones who will be seen, through history’s eye, as terrible bigots fighting for religiously-inspired bigotry. I have little doubt that, in the future, those passages that regard homosexuality as abomination will be thrown out exactly like those that condone slavery. These people fighting against gay marriage will be seen exactly like the anti-miscegenation activists, as anachronistic and small-minded, and poor readers of their own bible.

Hat tip Right Wing Watch.

Urgh. These asshats give me indigestion.

Barber/Staver: Dan Savage poisoning kids against “believers in normal sexuality”

Gay screeds result in CCOKC: Child Celebrities Opposed to Kirk Cameron

We here in the atheist community have known for a very long time that Kirk Cameron is a total asshat. His creationist screeds and antiscience campaigns were evidently not quite sufficient to generate outrage amongst his peers, but as it turns out, his latest anti-gay nonsense finally put him over the top. A number of child celebrities have banded together and formed a group to oppose his nonsense once and for all.

Now if only they’d also speak out against the nonsense he spews about evolution or the secular founding of America, our least-favorite Growing Pain might finally fade from public view.

Gay screeds result in CCOKC: Child Celebrities Opposed to Kirk Cameron

Gay marriage doesn’t threaten our marriage

I’m reblogging a post in full by an esteemed fellow Canuck, George Waye, who has asked for help in spreading the word on this laudable cause.

Photo of Derek and Tessie Forgie, holding a sign reading 'Gay marriage doesn't threaten our marriage.'
Derek and Tessie Forgie

I’d like you to meet Derek Forgie.  I’ve known Derek for almost twenty years- we were both involved in the arts community here in North Bay for many years before Derek moved down to Toronto in search of fame and fortune.  Well, mostly fame.

Derek is the most motivated guy I know.  When he wants to do something, he just does it.  When he moved to Toronto he started HSSE, Heterosexuals for Same Sex Equality, a group whose mission statement is to advocate for LGBT issues from a heterosexual angle- and to get the message out that human rights are everyone’s rights.

Continue reading “Gay marriage doesn’t threaten our marriage”

Gay marriage doesn’t threaten our marriage

Prop 8 sponsors are entitled to defend it in court if state refuses

Via The LA Times:

The California Supreme Court decided Thursday that the sponsors of Proposition 8 and other ballot measures are entitled to defend them in court when the state refuses to do so, a ruling likely to spur federal courts to decide the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans.

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Prop 8 sponsors are entitled to defend it in court if state refuses