Clton's Gay Marriage Interview Was Controversial Bee Of Substance, Not Tone | HuffPost Latt News

Contents:

• YEARS LATER, CHICK-FIL-A STILL FEELS HEAT OM LGBTQ GROUPS OVER ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE REMARKS
• WORLD VISN: WHY WE’RE HIRG GAY CHRISTIANS SAME-SEX MARRIAG
• CLTON'S GAY MARRIAGE INTERVIEW WAS CONTROVERSIAL BEE OF SUBSTANCE, NOT TONE
• A GUI FOR GAY MEN ON BOTH OPEN AND MONOGAMO MARRIAGE
• THE QUTNS OF GAY MARRIAGE: AN INQUIRG ESSAY, PART ONE
• INTERVIEW WH GAY MARRIAGE MOVEMENT FOUNR EVAN WOLFSON

YEARS LATER, CHICK-FIL-A STILL FEELS HEAT OM LGBTQ GROUPS OVER ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE REMARKS

To explore the se for gay marriage, the Pew Fom has turned to Jonathan Rch, a lumnist at The Natnal Journal and gut scholar at The Brookgs Instutn.

I’ve given a lot of talks on gay marriage a lot of ci sce wrg a book about 2004 lled Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for Ameri.

You get very sympathetic people who say, I really want to do somethg for gay people, but changg the fundamental boundari of our most ancient, important stutn jt go too far, so let’s do civil unns or somethg else. We uld also have other bat about what the Bible do and don’t mean, but I thk what boils down to is that gay people should al wh the same standards as straight people.

WORLD VISN: WHY WE’RE HIRG GAY CHRISTIANS SAME-SEX MARRIAG

To have those people set up a married kd of liftyle – often raisg kids, by the way; many gay upl are raisg kids – outsi of marriage sends all the wrong cultural signals.

The big cultural problem wh the fay Ameri is not that gay people want to get married – ’s that straight people are not gettg married or not stayg married.

CLTON'S GAY MARRIAGE INTERVIEW WAS CONTROVERSIAL BEE OF SUBSTANCE, NOT TONE

And to me, one of the important cultural effects of gay marriage will be to send a very strong signal that marriage is somethg that is available to and expected of everybody, not jt a few. I’ve never really unrstood why admtg gay upl – fairly small number – to the stutn of marriage and havg them uphold those ials would make marriage ls likely or succsful for anyone else.

I often say, you know, when straight people get the right to marry two or three people or their mother or a toaster, then gay people should have the same right. But all gay people are askg for now is the one thg that we lack but that all straight people already have – they don’t need to give themselv anythg more.

I’ve often said, if I believed that gay marriage would wreck straight marriage then I’d be agast jt as if I thought that givg women the vote would wreck mocracy so that no one’s vote mattered, I’d be agast that, too. On the other hand, if gay marriage was to have a very small, sort of cremental bad effect on the divorce rate for straight people, I’d say that’s not enough to stop bee you’ve got 10, 12, 15 ln Amerins not only whout marriage, but whout even the prospect of marriage. And then after Goodridge mandated same-sex marriage Massachetts, you had some of the gay marriage advot sayg, we need to get the urt to impose this around the untry as fast as possible.

A GUI FOR GAY MEN ON BOTH OPEN AND MONOGAMO MARRIAGE

And then you had nservativ sayg, we need to sh through a nstutnal amendment at the feral level to ban gay marriage on every ch of Amerin soil forever. That om muny and that’s somethg gay upl are gog to have to build by showg, as I thk we are Massachetts, that we n be good maral cizens, that we’re not hurtg anybody else’s marriage. When this issue first me up 1970 – the first gay uple tried to get married 1970, filed a lawsu and lost – the urts were the only place you uld go.

THE QUTNS OF GAY MARRIAGE: AN INQUIRG ESSAY, PART ONE

I see the prospect for young people to grow up assumg that they will have fai and nnectns to their muny that have been nied to gay people for thoands of years. They clud Judh Kasen-Wdsor, widow of gay rights activist Edie Wdsor; Matthew Hayn, -owner of Club Q, the LGBTQ club Colorado Sprgs where a gunman last month killed five people a mass shootg; Club Q shootg survivors Jam Slgh and Michael Anrson; and a number of platiffs om s that culmated the landmark civil rights se Obergefell vs. Philanthropist and Democratic donor David Boht, who has been an outspoken gay- and transgenr-rights activist and longtime supporter of Bin, told CNN that Tuday’s bill signg uld not e at a more ccial moment.

“[Bin] has monstrated his support for s for lbian and gay civil rights, and Tuday’s signg to law is a reaffirmatn of that durg this time when rights are unr asslt, ” Boht said. Gay rights advot and others say that gay and lbian people want to get married for the same reasons that straight people do – they want to be rg, stable relatnships, they want to build a life and even start a fay wh someone else. Some people favor of gay marriage have argued for a “go-slow” approach, acknowledgg that we’re largely unknown terrory and that a majory of Amerins are not yet fortable wh same-sex marriage.

INTERVIEW WH GAY MARRIAGE MOVEMENT FOUNR EVAN WOLFSON

And if the urts ultimately say, “Marriage mt be allowed between anybody and anybody, ” the gay rights advot are not gog to say, “Well, you’ve gone too far. I don’t thk there is an issue that is a tougher issue for people to stand up agast Amerin culture today than this one, both om the standpot of the mastream media and the popular culture nmng you for your – they n e all sorts of words to scribe you – tolerant, bigot, homophobe, hater. The book nsists of a bate between Corvo, who supports gay marriage, and Maggie Gallagher, who oppos — and who has, through her work for the Natnal Organizatn for Marriage, vigoroly risted the legal regnn of same-sex marriage.