I have a blog at the Times Union newspaper, the local Hearst-owned daily, where I write far less frequently, and generally have a difficult coming up with topics there. I KNOW what I want to do here in THIS blog, but after over three FIVE years there, not so much.
It’s the week in late March of the Supreme Court hearing two cases about gay marriage, or same-sex marriage, or marriage equality. The latter term may be preferred by advocates – of which I am one – but the former two are more descriptive. It’s like talking about interracial marriage, which was a marriage equality issue in the US in my lifetime. Most people these days don’t say, “Hey, there’s an interracial couple,” do they? Well, generally not to their faces.
In any case, I thought I should write something, but my time was limited, and I needed something while the issue was still hot. So I went to this blog, found a piece I had written in December 2012, changed maybe a half dozen words, and reposted it on my TU blog.
This turned out to have been a great decision. The post was featured on the TU’s online Best of the Blogs, and it generated quite a few comments to boot. Some of it was about how opponents are always dragging bestiality into the discussion.
One guy, Steve, who was self-described as a gay man, was particularly perturbed by it, and I understood this, possibly in a different way. Some let’s say less-than-enlightened folks have made comparisons between black people, especially black men, and lower primates.
In any case, though I think it ought not to need to be said, I oppose bestiality because there’s no free will on the part of the beast. Indeed, that why there have been rules concerning the age of consent about humans, that one wants to protect a child from being exploited.
Related: there was some argument by Justice Scalia in one of the SCOTUS cases, that if you allow gay marriage, you have to allow gay adoption, and that the science is unclear about the efficacy of that. Except I don’t believe that to be true. The issue of gay adoption was addressed in the amicus curie brief that the American Sociological Association filed in the very case Scalia was commenting on.
Here are some interesting figures from the American Consumers Newsletter about support for gay marriage. And, according to his younger daughter, Ronald Reagan would have supported marriage equality.
In Belgium gay marriage is legal. When this law came out on January 30, 2003 lots of gay couple married but now the statistics say that the level of divorces is extremely high ! I have nothing against a gay marriage but I don’t agree at all to an adoption ! I think a child needs a mother and a father and not two mothers or two fathers. Adoption for homosexual couples is extremely difficult and mostly rejected. And that is good so !
Roger, regarding adoption: I tell folks (even strangers, and you know how shy I am!) who mention the evils of LGBTQ folks adopting children this: “I had the perfect childhood, according to you. A mom at home, a working dad, house in the suburbs, a fun neighborhood, and a pool in the back yard.” Then I wait for them to say things like, “See, she’s proving our point.”
THEN I look ’em in the eye and say, “I was also sexually abused repeated by my father, and my mom knew about it. I would rather have been raised by a lesbian or gay male couple who didn’t use me in that way.”
SAME-SEX COUPLES USUALLY ADOPT THE UNADOPTABLE. Biracial babies, crack-addicted babies, kids with special needs, teen siblings who want to be together. I think it’s because they understand and have compassion for “the odd kid out.” I’ve seen couples perform absolute miracles, while the straight couples “hold out” for a brand-new babe from abroad. So many kids here need a good home, and I for one, as a straight mom of a lesbian, am happy there are so many good people in my circle, my wide circle, of friends. Thanks, and I hope Gattina reads this, because maybe she doesn’t know any couples who have performed these miracles. Love, Amy
Amy – I was thinking of the white lesbian couple – one goes to my church – who have a black adopted son, and they are doing pretty well thus far.