Nobody Daily - 5/16/08

Nobody Asked Me But:

There is a huge reaction this morning to yesterday’s ruling by the California Supreme Court that overturned the state’s ban on gay marriage. The vote was close (4-3) and a little surprising in that the majority of the court justices are conservatives. Also surprising and gratifying is the results of an on-line poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times in which 80% of those responding agreed with the decision. Hopefully this is an indicator that any attempt to overturn the decision by Constitutional Initiative will fail.

I think the issue divides people into three groups - those who favor, those whose opposition is based on tradition and those who are homophobic.

I was once with the second group, but several years ago, I switched to the first. I did so because I realized that tradition is often the refuge for indefensible positions such as the long-defended ban on interracial marriage and that institutions must be judged on present merit rather than past custom. And merit, to me, declares that love and not sexual orientation should be deciding factor that answers the question of who should marry.

I am not going to say very much about the third group. Homophobia contains its own self-destructive core. But I will point out two areas of hypocrisy among the opponents. First, there is the ill-named “Liberty Counsel” whose main effort is to deny liberty. Second, there are those who devour their own, who support conservative judges as long as their decisions are pleasing but label them as activists when they stray from the Far Right Gospel.

Can you look at the joyful faces of gay couples after the decision was announced and tell me that it was wrong, that love shouldn’t prevail? I don’t think so.