{"id":592,"date":"2008-10-09T11:02:55","date_gmt":"2008-10-09T16:02:55","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-10-09T11:02:55","modified_gmt":"2008-10-09T16:02:55","slug":"gay-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/?p=592","title":{"rendered":"gay marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Out here” in California much hubbub has been made over proposition 8<\/a>, otherwise known as the “gay marriage bill.” The proposition is actually confusing – and its proponents<\/a> want it that way. A lot of people in California apparently don’t know that gay marriage was already legalized here by a court decision back in June. This proposition doesn’t give the right – it takes it away, and the proponents are hoping you don’t realize this and vote “yes” – which is really a vote against same sex marriage as a “yes” vote nullifies the earlier court decision and amends the California constitution.<\/p>\n

(PS – Pepperdine, although an openly christian university, was furious that they were mentioned in the recent tv ad and have since had their name removed from it)<\/p>\n

I heard a radio ad yesterday morning from the “yes on prop 8” folks that was insanely insipid. The main point of the ad was that (paraphrasing) “if gay people have the right to marry that will impinge upon everyones right to get married.” Um… how? It is legal to drive a car – but you don’t HAVE to. It is legal to drink beer – but you don’t HAVE to. If it is legal to marry someone of the same sex – how will that affect your right to have a heterosexual marriage? Did it affect a man’s right to vote when women gained that right? This isn’t an either\/or situation – heterosexual marriage won’t become illegal if prop 8 is shot down. Also – if it was going to affect us so greatly – IT WOULD ALREADY BE DOING IT since gay couples have had the right to get married in California (and have been doing so) since June. <\/p>\n

The ad also warns that churches will lose their tax exempt status. Well, if that was going to happen, shouldn’t it have happened already since the devil came up and united Ellen and Portia in unholy matrimony? The sky didn’t open up and rain blood and the seas boil a month ago – so I think everything is going to be okay. (PS – several churches<\/a> have already been caught openly endorsing McCain – a direct violation of their “right” to tax exempt status)<\/p>\n

I don’t speak often about this – but I’m a Libertarian. The basic concept is that your personal freedom is absolute until it impinges upon someone else’s. This used to be the basic concept of our constitution I believe – I remember Mr. Johnson in American History class telling us “your freedom to punch ends where my nose begins.” That means Tom Cruise can make out with Clay Aiken in his mansion if he wants. It also means they can smoke a joint afterwards if they want. One day both those will be a reality – but our (California) society has chosen to tackle the more controversial marriage issue first. Oh wait – not really<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since marriage has tax benefits that technically (to me) makes it a state sponsored business enterprise contract – NOT a religious ceremony. If you want to celebrate your business contract in a church with your family – go ahead – but since your “religious ceremony that god said was to be between a man and a woman” gives you tax benefits you have to look at the first amendment to the United States Constitution. There should be no special rights and privileges that are afforded one religious group. Since marriage comes with special rights and privileges (primarily differing and beneficial tax laws – specifically when selling a home – something more important in California than perhaps any other state) that makes it something that has to be separate from religion. That means the same rules that apply to something else state sponsored (like a driver’s license) must apply to marriage. Gay people can drive, buy a home, open a business, and many other things that require state and federal approval. If my gay friend can apply for (and receive) a federal student loan, he\/she should also be able to apply for (and get) a marriage license.<\/p>\n

The ultimate irony is that some christian denominations now even allow openly gay pastors<\/a>. The Christians themselves can’t even come to an agreement on their treatment of gay people, and they want the rest of us (who’ve accepted our neighbors of homosexual orientation a long long time ago) to tell our friends, family and neighbors they aren’t allowed to marry. <\/p>\n

You want to tackle a bigger problem in our society? Stop supporting underage pregnancy. Statistics don’t show that homosexuals (by virtue of deciding to be that way) end up in prison more than heterosexuals. However, statistics DO show that children born of underage mothers have a much higher risk of being delinquents and eventually full fledged criminals. But, if Bristol is doing it it must be okay. We’ve now got official christian (republican) approval on teen-motherhood as a “non-issue.” <\/p>\n

“non-issue” is a direct quote<\/a> by the way from the son of the father of the neoconservative movement.<\/p>\n

Oh how the republicans have matured. Just eight years ago Rove sunk McCain’s battleship by spreading the rumor<\/a> his “black” daughter was illegitimate. (she was neither black nor illegitimate) Now a 17 year old teen mother is a “non-issue.”<\/p>\n

By the way – one of the reasons given for a “yes” on prop 8 (according to them) is that it will force schools to teach that marriage is between two people rather than a man and a woman. Ironic on two counts. #1 these are the same people who DON’T want to teach evolution in public schools and #2 am I the only one that doesn’t remember a single second ever spent in public school talking about what marriage was???! <\/p>\n

Unfortunately this is yet another thing I have to put in McCain’s negative column. He already called for the firing of the SEC chairman on 60 minutes without knowing what he was talking about<\/a> (and then AGAIN in the first debate!). Now he has openly endorsed proposition 8, while Obama has vaguely supported it.<\/p>\n

Are we still a state (and country) of closet homophobes? I guess we’ll find out on November 4th.<\/p>\n

In the end – if you really want to respect the biblical tradition of marriage (which I don’t) there are two things you have to do:<\/p>\n

#1 Remove all interaction between marriage and state\/federal law<\/p>\n

#2 Do not allow divorce<\/p>\n

Treat it like a baptism or a bris (I don’t recall a “baptism” tax break on my 1040) – then nobody will have any problem with you excluding gays. <\/p>\n

except for all your lonely gay pastors at the “other” church down the street……<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Out here” in California much hubbub has been made over proposition 8, otherwise known as the “gay marriage bill.” The proposition is actually confusing – and its proponents want it that way. A lot of people in California apparently don’t know that gay marriage was already legalized here by a court decision back in June. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}