Saturday, September 6, 2008

Who Knew...Gays are Individuals, Too

I've got to say, if Prop 8 passes in California this November I am going to cry. Just giving you all a heads up on it. Our dear friends Leanne and Moya are getting married at the beginning of next month. We are sadly unable to make it. If a mere month later their marriage is banned I am not sure I will be able to fully articulate my outrage.

The reason I bring this up now is because I ran across this article in The Atlantic which boldly suggests that homosexuals are individuals. Shocking, I know.

I enjoy how the piece was written. In regards to the May 15th ruling granting same-sex couples the right to marry, Andrew Sullivan writes:
What’s notable here is the starting point of the discussion: an “individual.” The individual citizen posited by the court is defined as prior to his or her sexual orientation. He or she exists as a person before he or she exists as straight or gay. And the right under discussion is defined as “the opportunity of an individual” to choose another “person” to “establish a family” in which reproduction and children are not necessary. And so the distinction between gay and straight is essentially abolished.
And that was followed by a description of his wedding:
Ours was not, we realized, a different institution, after all, and we were not different kinds of people. In the doing of it, it was the same as my sister’s wedding and we were the same as my sister and brother-in-law. The strange, bewildering emotions of the moment, the cake and reception, the distracted children and weeping mothers, the morning’s butterflies and the night’s drunkenness: this was not a gay marriage; it was a marriage.
It sure is hard to get through days some times knowing full well that our society still battles race issues, gender issues, and sexual orientation issues. I just keep hanging my hat on the hope that future generations will get it right. And in the meantime, we will just have to keep calling the injustices out into the open right here.

5 comments:

habladora said...

Great post, and congrats to Leanne and Moya!

Anonymous said...

It would be such a backward step if the law were to be repealed. For the life of me I do not understand why some are so concerned about what another does sexually. I am especially disturbed that an act of love could be looked upon so distastefully. We can rush off to war, ignore genocide but to people of the same sex loving each other sets off flares. Simply ridiculous.

Agincourt said...

Brava. Period.

I feel like the opposition to this (and other equality related issues) are saying to: anything that enhances 'others' must some how detract from 'themselves.

I just want to say to them: How does my equality and right detract from yours? I just don't see it, and never will.

Anonymous said...

I have heard that Prop 8 wouldn't nullify current marriages, but I can't direct you to a source. I just hope I'm right. Moreso, I hope that it won't even be an issue, as people start accepting all of society, not just people like them.

daedalus2u said...

The place where that language comes from is the universal declaration of human rights. Founding a family is a fundamental human right that governments may not ban.

http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html