Mary's Family Matters

February 24, 2004 8:11 AM

Dear Mary, your father, recently said he would support adding anti-gay prejudice to the US Constitution, making you and millions of other Americans second-class citizens. As an open lesbian who has worked for years as a public advocate for gay civil rights, you are in a unique position to defend yourself and your community in this dire hour. You're right, this is very personal.
posted by alms (12 comments total)

See also this previous thread.
posted by alms at 8:13 AM on February 24, 2004

It's great how the 2004 election is going to be about gays marriage and abortion. Two things that mean a lot to most Americans.
posted by the fire you left me at 8:18 AM on February 24, 2004

God knows that gay marriage is more of a threat to the nation than lying about WMDs in order to send hundreds of Americans to die in a god-forsaken hellhole halfway around the world so that Halliburton shareholders can keep paying the veep for services rendered.

If that weren't the case I'd start thinking the Administration hasn't got its priorities straight!
posted by clevershark at 8:40 AM on February 24, 2004

TFYLM, if by "most Americans", you mean the 51% of Americans who are women, and those who are GLB or who support GLB people, yeah, you're right.

In light of all the suffering in the world, economic injustice both within and outside of the US, and the fact that our planet is going to hell in a handbasket, yes, there are bigger issues.

But these issues do "mean a lot" to those of us fighting for our rights to our own bodies, and privacy in our own homes. Why those on the other side of the issue are so interested in making these issues so critical to this year's elections, I have no idea. You'd think they'd be too busy raising the families they are so focused upon.
posted by pomegranate at 8:43 AM on February 24, 2004

Why those on the other side of the issue are so interested in making these issues so critical to this year's elections, I have no idea.

uh... because while the Democrats are saying "WMD's, we were misled, Halliburton profiteering, big deficits, yadda yadda yadda," the Republicans are saying "The Democrats want to kill your babies and fuck you in the ass!"

It's pretty simple, really.
posted by Jart at 8:59 AM on February 24, 2004

"Paging Log Cabin Republicans, paging Log Cabin Republicans, White Courtesy Telephone pleassse....Paging Log Cabin Republi......."

In one of his (intentionally) pulpier novels, Kurt Vonnegut created a black American Nazi Party character. Just sayin' ...
posted by troutfishing at 9:00 AM on February 24, 2004

fire, I urge you to look at this in a different way. Equality, freedom and respect for difference are quintessentially American concerns, no matter what side of the law you are on. I'm not a woman nor will I be getting one pregnant in this lifetime but abortion does mean a lot to me as an American. My life is not so insular that I am only concerned with the rights and freedoms that affect me specifically.
posted by archimago at 9:27 AM on February 24, 2004

It's great how the 2004 election is going to be about gays marriage and abortion. Two things that mean a lot to most Americans.

While I agree that, by themselves, those two issues aren't the most important issues to most Americans, I submit that the "culture war" and its fallout will be more important fifty years from now than, say, the invasion of Iraq, the budget deficit, or NAFTA.

The relationship between state and society (and the constraints of that relationship), the limits on interaction between the public and private spheres, the expanding circle of rights that we derive by following the best of the Founders' ideals to their logical conclusion - these are the defining factors that make up the "American experiment." These are the things that make our country fundamentally different from many others.
posted by me & my monkey at 10:03 AM on February 24, 2004

Republicans are saying "The Democrats want to kill your babies and fuck you in the ass!"

it's a man-on-dog world.
posted by quonsar at 12:11 PM on February 24, 2004

Same-sex marriage is far, far more dangerous and more important than hunting down Osama bin Laden and bringing him to justice. Its far more important than the willful and continued disregard for the Will of the People. Same sex marriage is far more of a threat to our lives than creating the worst anti-American sentiment in the last fifty years around the world.

Thank goodness our politicians don't waste our time and money with frivolous crap like jobs, the economy, the environment, foreign policy, foreign trade and other stuff that lesser focused administrations dealt with.

Abortion and same sex marriage. That's what's important.
posted by fenriq at 2:47 PM on February 24, 2004

Abortion and same sex marriage. That's what's important.

But if we just encouraged both, wouldn't they eventually cancel each other out?
posted by rushmc at 4:57 PM on February 24, 2004

I don't know, I tend to be of the opinion that the less time the government spends concerned with an issue the better, so maybe this proposed ammendment is a good sign. Not to get passed, that would be bad, just to let all the politicians in Washington sit around arguing about it all day. This could work.
posted by dagnyscott at 7:33 PM on February 24, 2004