Why the battle for gay marriage was won so easily - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• AGAST EQUALY: QUEER CRIQU OF GAY MARRIAGE
• I’M GAY AND I’M AGAST GAY MARRIAGE
• THE GAY PEOPLE AGAST GAY MARRIAGE
• GROUPS OPPOSED TO GAY RIGHTS RAKE LNS AS STAT BATE ANTI-LGBTQ BILLS
• I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK
• WHY THE BATTLE FOR GAY MARRIAGE WAS WON SO EASILY
• HOW SAFE IS GAY MARRIAGE? ADVOT FEAR CREASGLY NSERVATIVE URT
• METHODISTS STRENGTHEN STANCE AGAST GAY MARRIAGE AND OPENLY LGBT CLERGY
• GAY MARRIAGE

AGAST EQUALY: QUEER CRIQU OF GAY MARRIAGE

While what feels like the entirety of the gay and lbian movement is marchg unison towards some vague notn of equaly, the Agast Equaly llective has been quietly assemblg a digal archive to document the cril ristance to the polics of cln. This pocket-sized book of archival texts lays out some of the historil foundatns of queer ristance to the gay marriage mastream alongsi more ntemporary ter-subjective criqu that al directly wh issu of race, class, genr, cizenship, age, abily, and more. And what's so sad is that stead of the radil roots of gay liberatn you mentned the troductn, we look at the ntemporary gay movement and 's all about, you know, we're jt like you.

But, really, 's only givg that right to people who are willg to nform to this narrow notn of a long-term monogamo partnership sanctned by the state, which really don't relate to the majory of people's liv -straight, gay, queer or otherwise. And 's an anti-Proposn 8 vio, which is to say 's support of same-sex marriage and portrays two gay men who after gettg married adopt a - well, how n we put this - more I thk they would e the word mundane suburban liftyle. SYCAMORE: Well, I actually see that, you know, over time do seem that there are, you know, emergg, you know, even mastream disurse, more opposn to somethg like marriage and the stranglehold has on, you know, the sort of gay tablishment agenda.

I’M GAY AND I’M AGAST GAY MARRIAGE

The posts, and the way they spread across the ter, spoke to jt how much the culture at large wants to see queer people the better part of a , gay marriage was the rallyg cry for the queer liberatn movement: The theory held that this major legal tone would burst the dam and give way to a flood of total equaly.

“It feels like all the gay people are shg to get married, and what is marriage but a heterosexual ncept, one that is built on a history of female opprsn and patriarchal ntrol?

THE GAY PEOPLE AGAST GAY MARRIAGE

After France's first same-sex marriage, and a vote the UK Parliament which puts England and Wal on urse for gay weddgs next summer, two US Supreme Court lgs expected soon uld hasten the advance of same-sex marriage across the Atlantic. A send lg will be ma on the legaly of California's gay marriage while favourable lgs will spark celebratns among pro-marriage supporters across the US, some gay men and women will stead see as a victory for a patriarchal stutn that bears no historil relevance to lbians are opposed to marriage on femist grounds, says Cldia Card, a profsor of philosophy at the Universy of Wisns-Madison, bee they see as an stutn that serv the terts of men more than women.

A muny ma up of lns of people is bound to hold a range of views on any subject, but will surprise many that some of the people who on the face of stand to ga the most om gay marriage should oppose . And the ntrary views are not often the UK, Daily Mail lumnist Andrew Pierce says that for speakg out agast gay marriage the past, he has been attacked as a homophobe and Uncle Tom, spe a long history of champng gay strongly believ that civil partnerships - troduced 2005 to give same-sex upl equal legal rights - are enough. " He thks there are more gay people agreement wh him than people may thk - at a dner party he hosted for 11 gay iends, only one was favour of marriage, one was uncid and the rt were agast, he says.

A webse lled Homovox featured 12 gay men and women opposed to , wh some of them cg a belief that children benef most om oppose-sex many years, the nservative stutn of marriage was never on the gay mpaign agenda, says activist Yasm Nair, who -found a group provotively named Agast Equaly.

GROUPS OPPOSED TO GAY RIGHTS RAKE LNS AS STAT BATE ANTI-LGBTQ BILLS

But beme an objective the early 1990s - regretfully, her view - when the movement emerged om the seismic shock of the Aids epimic, pleted of polil gay people who are favour of same-sex marriage believe anythg short of marriage is not rarely hear arguments agast by gay people themselv, says Stampp Corb, publisher of magaze LGBT Weekly, who se strong parallels wh the civil rights movement. "So when I hear LGBT people sayg the same thg: 'I don't thk gay and lbian people should get married', is different om slav sayg: 'I don't thk slav should have the abily to get married'? And the US, the notn of "separate but equal" rekdl memori of segregatn and the creatn of send-class so many different pots of view on a subject that has long divid Ameri, perhaps the bate jt unrl the obv - gay people are like everyone n follow the Magaze on Twter and on Facebook.

I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK

Although don’t get much airtime beyond queer unterpublics, there is an adamantly left-wg, progrsive and pro-gay perspective that suggts same-sex marriage is not a necsary good. Lbian and gay muni, and the femist muni wh which they have historilly overlapped, have long celebrated the valu of sexual diversy over the sexual nformy reprented by marriage and the ethil importance of sexual straight-talkg rather than the double-standards so equently observed marriage’s vicy. There’s a tenncy among s proponents to reprent same-sex marriage as the fal chapter the story of gay acceptance, “the last civil right” as has sometim exaggeratedly been lled.

WHY THE BATTLE FOR GAY MARRIAGE WAS WON SO EASILY

It is large part bee of femist and gay novatns livg that marriage today is creasgly unrstood not as a relig but a social relatn; characterised not by male domatn but equaly and mutualy between the sex; valued not terms of s ntractual basis but terms of s ongog ntributn to a person’s sense of well-beg; and mataed not until ath-do--part but for as long as both parti fd satisfactn .

HOW SAFE IS GAY MARRIAGE? ADVOT FEAR CREASGLY NSERVATIVE URT

Rather than adm lbians and gay men to marriage as currently nceived, we should avow more fully the range of optns that characterise a lot of our liv and livg arrangements.

In regnisg some gay and lbian relatnships as marriag, same-sex marriage emphasis the ntued illegimacy of other sexual arrangements and the ntued excln of other social actors. Now this ragtag bunch might not seem as worthy of social protectn and prtige as the lovg, rg, long-term gay and lbian upl that are the shy new poster boys and girls for same-sex marriage. The multiln-dollar war cht has bolstered a movement that jt a few years ago appeared to be losg ground Ameri’s slong culture war around lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer rights.

METHODISTS STRENGTHEN STANCE AGAST GAY MARRIAGE AND OPENLY LGBT CLERGY

“Many of those, while not specifilly tied to a church, are rooted the nservative Christian, biblil sense of human sexualy, ” said Stt McCoy, the terim puty legal director for LGBTQ rights and special ligatn for the SPLC and the SPLC Actn Fund, the group’s polil actn simply holdg a relig belief that views homosexualy or transgenr inty as sful do not tomatilly land a church or an anizatn on the SPLC’s list of hate groups. 'The hard re of the anti-gay movement' When the SPLC began trackg anti-LGBTQ hate the early 2010s, the anizatn noted that “a small terie of groups now prise the hard re of the anti-gay movement. C., that, acrdg to s webse, believ “homosexual nduct is harmful to the persons who engage ” and “is also harmful to society at large” — jumped om over $12 ln to more than $23 ln.

GAY MARRIAGE

“The groups that are opposed to LGBTQ equaly did their msage ttg and found that attackg gay people is no longer the broadly popular culture war totem that they ed the ’90s, ” Gberg said. I was one of few soldiers who joed the service before graduatg high school, but the admistratn at the time, which I believe was homophobic, chose to act as if I never existed bee of my queer hate that I experienced growg up on Long Island was my first enunter wh how others would treat me as a queer soldier. Last month, Gallup found that a rerd high of 71% of Amerins support , cludg a majory of are the nam of every Republin reprentative who opposed feral protectns for gay marriage:Robert Arholt (Ala.