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Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures."
-- Daniel Webster
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Sunday, May 16, 2004 :::
I live three blocks from the current epicenter of the gay marriage movement.
As you may know, cities and towns in Massachusetts will start handing out marriage certificates to same-sex couples tomorrow. Cambridge has announced that it will open city hall at midnight. So when I passed by at 10:00, the sidewalk in front of city hall was filled with people celebrating.
I currently consider myself very tentatively supportive of gay marriage -- I'd kind of like to see some states approve it and some states not, to see what happens -- but I strongly suspect the court decision enabling all of this was based not on what the law is, but on what the justices feel the law ought to be. And any pro-gay sentiment I might have is, on this occasion, overwhelmed by my anti-cheating sentiment.
But the gay-marriage opponents, as far as I saw, were represented solely by the "God hates fags" crowd. Indeed, that phrase itself was on several signs (as was "Thank God for 9/11," which I don't want to understand). The real lesson is probably that sane opponents have no motivation to come out, so the few people opposing gay marriage there are the insane ones. Indeed, they are outnumbered by celebrating throngs, by an even greater margin than I'd expect if one polled the local citizenry -- the ratio of supporters to opponents is probably ten or twenty to one. And I know enough opponents of gay marriage to know that they aren't represented by the people across the street from city hall. But I have to say that those people across from city hall are not helping their cause.
Especially since there's so much contrast with the throngs across the street. I consider this a dark day for the rule of law, but it's hard not to be happy for the people I witnessed in front of city hall. I hope they take the institution more seriously than a lot of heterosexuals have lately.Labels: same-sex marriage
::: posted by Steven at 10:19 PM
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