- Stanley Kurtz and other same-sex marriage opponents have been claiming that the sky fell in Scandinavia after gay marriage. Now Andrew Sullivan and Darren Spedale (who has been using a Fulbright scholarship to study this exact question in Scandinavia) suggest that the Scandinavian sky is firmly in place.
- From Amsterdam, the news (in the Boston Globe) seems pretty similar:
Thus far, specialists in domestic law, legislators, and some religious commentators say there is no empirical evidence of damage to the institution. For example, divorce rates are no higher, and there is no sign that conventional couples are shunning marriage.
There’s also some interesting thoughts in favor of a gradual strategy for achieving marriage equality. I’m not sure that the religious opposition they faced there is really comparable to what we face here in the USA, though.
- Meanwhile, in Virginia, they’ve passed a new law which not only bans gay marriage, civil unions, and contracts attempting to make marriage-like privileges between same-sex couples; it may actually outlaw all contracts between any two people of the same sex. That possible mistake aside, the extent to which some folks insist that gays must not have any rights at all is stunning. (See also Bean’s previous post regarding Michigan.)
- Two transgendered folks stage a tree-sit-in protest, apparently to get their parents to acknowledge their relationship.
- In the Advocate, David Ehrenstein reflects on “coming out” over the last half-century or so of American gay culture. Includes a painful showbiz anecdote from West Side Story, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. (Okay, I’m a bit obsessed with Sondheim.)
- Brad DeLong points out that, in Bush Treasury Department lingo, “hardworking” means “earns $200,000 or more a year.” No, really – that’s what they use the term to mean. So do they believe that no one who earns less than 200 grand is working hard?
the people he picks to work in his administration are supposed to support that effort as long as they don’t…
Thanks Amp for the links to Andrew Sullivan and Dan Spedale. It’s so very seldom I read about my country, and it’s neighbours, and don’t get the instant urge to correct facts and ideas that are completely taken out of context or just plain wrong. Spedale doesn’t show any of this!
The New York Times also reported on that tree thing, but they made it sound like both of the folks were seriously mentally disturbed. No idea whose version is closer to the truth, just mentioning it.
I’m just mystified as to what, exactly, SSM opponents think will happen to the “institution of marriage”…If SSM gets God really angry, maybe it will bring on the Apocalypse, and then the 2nd coming is right around the corner, and aren’t fundamentalists pretty psyched for that? You think they’d be jumping up and down to have SSM legalized! Mandatory, even!
Hmm. Maybe this puzzlement is how some of them feel about global warming.
kstyle,
Read the writings of Ben Batemen, among others, to understand what they’re bizarre, factually unsupported logic makes them fear. To summarize, if homos can wed, good young straight folks won’t because there’s nothing special and exclusive about it anymore. And then there won’t be any chilluns. And then we’ll die out.
Pretty scary stuff, huh? In more ways than one.
Yikes and yikes again. I’ll check out this Bateman fellow. Thanks for the tip.
The web site “Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About” (not savvy enough to link it) features special FAQs for Americans. A quote from it seems fairly applicable to the SSM debate:
Why don’t you and Margret get married?
What is it with you Americans and marriage? You seem to have some kind of confusion that makes a ritual inseparable from the thing it announces. I’m sorry to be the one to break this to you, but if you don’t have a funeral, you’re still dead, OK?[…]
The tree thing sounded pretty wacky to me. Who cares if they are gay or transgendered or whatever — what are they doing having oral sex in a tree?! What are they doing in a thong in a tree?!!! I hope this isn’t supposed to help anybody do anything (much less the boy’s mother accept his girlfriend!). Maybe they are mentally “challenged”?
Hey Barry, did you realize that we, Alas, Feministe and Feministing.com, were mentioned on Air America radio last night?
Still trying to find out what about. Giving you a heads up.
Majority Report, that is.
Thanks for the informative and scary links, Amp. I never knew what Ehrenstein looked like! It’s hard to be obsessed with Sondheim when one may not be able to afford the three Sondheim shows that’ll be playing on Broadway in the next six months, no? You have my empathy.
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