What did you think?

Re: I’ll ramble on again…

Thanks for your perspective, Mark. There are definitely a lot of complex sociological issues related to how people view homosexuality, especially straight men. I remember reading about a study which measured the sexual responses of college-age men to various erotic images, and guess what? The guys who identified themselves as the least accepting of gay people were the most likely to become aroused by gay porn. D’oh! Of course, that doesn’t mean they were gay (since the spectrum of sexuality is full of shades of gray), but it does imply that their intolerance of homosexuality was perhaps driven by their own sexual insecurities.

The most resistance to gay rights, though, seems to come overwhelmingly from people with fundamentalist religious views, whether they are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, etc. There’s no easy way to bridge that divide, except for people on opposite sides of the issue — especially families and friends — to communicate openly and honestly. It’s clear that Sarah Palin, for instance, does not hate gay people or want to deny them basic human rights, despite being of a religious background that’s far from gay-friendly. From what I understand, though, she has a very close gay friend from high school, which might have a lot to do with her tolerance.

Re: I’ll ramble on again…

I’m very familiar with the origins of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. It was a compromise bourn out of an sincere attempt by President Clinton to end the discrimination of gay men and lesbians in the military. Thanks to the likes of Sam Nunn and John McCain, the issue took on a life of its own, and with pressure from Republicans and more conservative members of his own party, Clinton was compelled to retreat from his original plan and create an awkward compromise. But the good news is that a stroke of a pen from President Obama (or McCain!) can reverse it, since it was only an Executive Order.

Later, in 1996, when the Defense of Marriage Act was passed overwhelmingly in the House and Senate on the eve of the presidential election, Clinton was under enormous political pressure to sign the bill. And he did. But, a spokeswoman for Hillary made a good point about DOMA:

“Sen. Clinton [then First Lady] backed the Defense of Marriage Act because it enabled us to fend off right wing attacks like the Federal Marriage Amendment by keeping marriage as the purview of the states. She believes DOMA served an important purpose in that respect. Marriage should be left up to the states.” http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0607/Hillary_repudiates_DOMA.html

Ironically, the author of DOMA, Libertarian Bob Barr, this year apologized for his role in creating the legislation and came out against a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Anyway, to answer your question about civil disobedience, trust me, I know how to pick my battles, and convincing people to use the words “gay” and “marriage” is not one I choose to fight. Others will, but I can best serve the interests of the LGBT community on a more local level, as those in Renton who know me can attest to. 🙂

Re: I’ll ramble on again…

>> Can’t file jointly? That sucks and needs to be changed just so you suffer under the same “marriage penalty” that I do 🙂

Actually, I make quite a bit more than my (not-legal-in-WA-State) husband, so we’d actually pay a lot less in taxes by filing jointly.

So, in the meantime, we’re paying more in Federal taxes, but we’re not capable of receiving each other’s Federal benefits. It’s easy to see why Bob Barr (a Libertarian) changed his mind about the Defense of Marriage Act.