The Mnota Senate recently voted to legalize same-sex marriage as Amerins' views of gay cizens ntue to shift. In light of the events, Jonathan Rch mak the nservative se for gay marriage orr to monstrate that is part and parcel of a re-mment to fay valu, not a flight om them.
Contents:
- CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR GAY MARRIAGE
- THE NSERVATIVE SE FOR GAY MARRIAGE
- ONCE HYSTERIL ON GAY MARRIAGE, CONSERVATIV ARE NOW INHERENT
- GAY RIGHTS VS. FREE SPEECHSUPREME COURT BACKS WEB DIGNER OPPOSED TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
- HIGH-PROFILE POLICIANS WHO CHANGED THEIR POSNS ON GAY MARRIAGE
CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR GAY MARRIAGE
* conservative stance on gay marriage *
In the space of two days this week voters North Carola approved a nstutnal amendment effectively banng same-sex marriage and US Print Barack Obama ma clear his view that gay and lbian upl should have the chance to wed.
We Southerners have held the le for tradn and moral tth about marriage every time the issue has been put on the ballot how cisive the North Carola vote was, and given that gay marriage proponents have lost every state, even culturally liberal California, is temptg to thk we n stand athwart history yellg, "Stop! In my newsroom experience, is taken as given that any opposn to gay marriage n only e om rank would no more take a fenr of tradnal marriage serly than you would take a segregatnist serly - or so the thkg go. Tryg to expla philosophilly why homosexualy is not the same thg as race draws blank is simply not somethg to be reasoned about, pecially not wh my generatn of journalists: too young to have seen the black civil rights movement, and who are not about to miss out on their own versn.
Though I firmly believe there is only a superficial nnectn between gay marriage and ter-racial marriage, the legacy of the civil rights movement the South is precisely why I thk marriage tradnalists are gog to lose the long n. Gay marriage opponents like to tell themselv that people get more nservative as they age - te, general, but unlikely this long as the tradnalist posn on same-sex marriage, almost universally held only 25 years ago, is treated as irratnal hatred and nothg but by the media, bs, and social el, there will be powerful social and psychologil prsure to shun .
THE NSERVATIVE SE FOR GAY MARRIAGE
Prejudice - eher the bad sense of mdls bigotry, or the good, Burkean sense - is the only thg keepg gay marriage at will not last, pecially as the social, legal, and mercial price for holdg fast to tradn creas, as certaly will, now that same-sex marriage mands the high ground the US social and cultural hierarchy. Gay marriage plet the stutnalisatn of the sexual revolutn, agast which the forc of social nservatism and relig tradn have been pleasg as ballot box victori are, I see no reason for the long feat to reverse, at least not my lifetime.
There is more energy the GOP for help for gay and transgenr issu than a lot of issu Bin r about, ” said Tyler Deaton, a Republin nsultant and senr adviser to the Amerin Uny Fund, which works to advance LGBTQ rights.
Bh’s 2004 printial n, apologized for the anti-same-sex marriage rhetoric of that mpaign and for his role fightg marriage equaly, while announcg that he was gay. Hedge fund billnaire and Republin donor Pl Sger quietly donated to pro-gay rights and formed the Amerin Uny PAC and Amerin Uny Fund, which fights for LGBTQ and relig eedom. A smopolan md bs person, Tmp did not prrize LGBTQ issu durg his mpaign and, fact, ma overt appeals to gay voters, though not by pledgg support for laws to protect them.
ONCE HYSTERIL ON GAY MARRIAGE, CONSERVATIV ARE NOW INHERENT
Probably Reagan was the last ndidate where we were like ‘this ndidate has gay iends, ’” said Charl Moran, spokperson for Log Cab Republins, a LGBTQ GOP group. “As print, he hired and promoted LGBT Amerins to the hight levels of ernment, cludg posns at the Whe Hoe, of which I was honored to be one of those people, Cabet agenci, cludg the first openly gay Cabet member, and ambassadorships. Moran says he rpond that he needs to go to gay and lbian voters the fall and tell them that the Republin Party has their back, and if the GOP vote unt for this bill is low, mak that msagg substantially more difficult.
GAY RIGHTS VS. FREE SPEECHSUPREME COURT BACKS WEB DIGNER OPPOSED TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
This month, a poll by ABC News and The Washgton Post found not only a 55% majory supportg marriage equaly, but also even bigger majori favor of allowg openly gay Boy Suts and opposed to banng gay Sut lears. ” It’s not jt Christians, eher: The Orthodox Unn, a Jewish anizatn, issued a statement to “reerate the historil posn of the Jewish fah, enunciated unequivolly our Bible, Talmud and Cos, which forbids homosexual relatnships and nmns the stutnalizatn of such relatnships as marriag. ” Yet many nservative lears have paired their opposn to gay marriage wh a ll to re for those who intify as gay (or, as some phrased , who experience “same-sex attractn”).
The list of important nservative posns, all relatg back to the fundamental prciple of dividual choice, go on and on: property rights; eedom of associatn; and eedom of speech, when the topic of gay marriage aris, some nservativ have not been nsistent.
HIGH-PROFILE POLICIANS WHO CHANGED THEIR POSNS ON GAY MARRIAGE
It wasn’t long ago that opposn to gay marriage held pri of place atop the ials of the right-wg firmament, send only to the strategic geni of the Bh admistratn’s “global war on terror” strategy. I’ve never seen a person e up to me and talk about gettg rid of gay marriage, ” huffs Mar Rub, who seems to have slept through the roughly half-dozen years durg which his party was obssed wh this objective.
ImageLorie Smh said her Christian fah requir her to turn away ctomers seekg servic to celebrate same-sex Woolf for The New York TimThe Supreme Court sid on Friday wh a web signer Colorado who said she had a First Amendment right to refe to sign weddg webs for same-sex upl spe a state law that forbids discrimatn agast gay people.