Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
"Everybody Is Supposed to be Equal In This Country"
Philip Spooner at the legislative hearing
As I drove past the park last week, I saw an opponent of same-sex marriage standing stubbornly in a driving rain, desperately struggling to hammer a huge American flag into the center of a vast sea of signs saying YES On 1! – that is, drive these homosexual weirdos out in the name of God and country. I came by 20 minutes later and she was still there, soaked but fervent. That pretty much defines the tone of the campaign here against same-sex marriage. Hysteria, anyone?
On Tuesday, Mainers will vote on whether to repeal the same-sex marriage law that easily passed last year. In the usual confounding fashion of referendum language, supporters of gay marriage vote no – don't repeal – and opponents vote yes. And as usual, the final impassioned days of the campaign have highlighted stark differences between the two campaigns. Unsurprisingly – change is scary – those for repeal have gone for the fear factor.
"Stand For Marriage! Don't Let Public Schools Teach Homosexual Marriage!" screams one omnipresent ad, with the picture of a kid holding his head in his hands (though could he be saying, Let me make up my own damn mind?) Another ad frantically zooms unintelligible clips around on a screen to prove that, "It's already happening! Don't be fooled!" The Yes campaign asks for support to "help us stand up to the vast network of wealthy homosexuals." Letter-writers urge a Yes vote "to show the state trusts in God." And one dire ad warns us not to allow homosexual marriage "to be taught to second graders." Hmm. Today, my second grader has reading, writing, geometry and gym. I think her heterosexual marriage class is on Monday.
Supporters of gay marriage have waged a thoughtful, upbeat campaign, as they should, focused on the elemental concept of fairness. In their ads they've presented traditional, common-sense Mainers who happen to believe in equality.
Yolande Dumont, a Catholic grandmother from blue-collar Lewiston: "I've raised four children and always treated them as equals...My son is a good man in a loving, committed relationship. He and his partner have created a loving home for my youngest grandchild. They work, they go to school, they participate in the community they live in. They share the same joys and sorrows of any other family. Yet there are some who think they should not be treated equally. My family deserves better. Marriage is a great institution – it works and it’s what I want for my children too."
Philip Spooner, 86-year-old World War Two veteran and "lifetime Republican," born on a potato farm, with four sons who all served in the military, "including the one gay son," testified at the legislative hearing. "Americans have shown the world again and again that we can figure out how to take all kinds of different people and live together as neighbors and fellow citizens...That is what we fought for in WWII – that idea that we can be different and still be equal...My wife and I did not raise four sons with the idea that three of them would have a certain set of rights, but our gay child would be left out. We raised them all to be hardworking, proud and loyal Americans...I think if two adults who love each other want to get married, they should be able to. Everybody is supposed to be equal in this country. Let’s make sure we are in Maine."
And let's make sure people show up at the polls on Tuesday. The vote is reportedly too close to call. Opponents will be out, driving rain or no, in the name of their God, and their fear, and their dreadful certainty. We all deserve better.
30 Comments so far
Show AllIf two men or two women want to hang out together, go ahead and do it, just realize it would be more acceptable to not try to call it marriage. Obviously, since homosexuals cannot produce children without the help of the other sex, this business originates in the head and not the body. Why not figure out another name for this type of union that might work better?
Why should whether one has children or not have anything to do with whether you should have the same rights as everyone else or not? I am 51, have NO children, and see no reason why anyone's rights should be abridged or limited by that fact. I know people in their 80's who have never had kids but have been married for 50 years. Should THEIR marriages be dissolved? Should those marriages be called something else?
The point to marriage should be that two people have found that they want to be together. In the past, it was nothing more than a business arrangement with the woman being the item being PURCHASED. She was nothing more than a cow or a horse. The Romans saw marriage as being a power consolidation play, as did most monarchies and royal families in the centuries since. It wasn't until the 19th century that the actual idea of "love" being the reason for marriage took hold.
Why gays would WANT such a thing is beyond me, but that is another topic. The fact is that if you want to be in a country that supposedly values ALL it's citizens and says that they are all the same, then you have to treat them all the same. If you allow one set of citizens a right then you have to give the same right to everyone else. If one group gets to marry, then ALL groups get to marry. And if it's the choice of one group WHO to marry, then it's GOT to be the choice for all who they marry.
"Separate but equal" was outlawed many years ago in this country. And if it applies to races, then it has to apply to sexual orientation as well, because NEITHER of these things is a "choice". It's how you were born, and that is coming from every gay or lesbian that I've ever met. I've NEVER had one tell me that they chose it.
What is harder to be, black or gay? Gay, because no black kid ever had to go and tell his parents that he was black.
He seems to be our newest right-wing troll. I wouldn't bother.
No, Kernelz has posted here for a long while.
As with all the others who just can't wrap their little minds around the sweet and simple notion of universal marriage, it's a proverbial broken record-- remember those?-- who persistently attempts to devise and present an acceptable alternative to tolerance, enlightenment, and good sense, while remaining in denial that these tortured "solutions" implicitly preserve unacceptable and unredeemed bigotry.
· Yr Obd't Servant
You wrote "Universal Marriage"... thank you for the new term.
Maybe having Marriage AND Civil Unions is a bit diviseve.
Here's a question: How would the issue change if there were a "Church of the Gays"?
You're welcome. The term just popped into my head; it seems obvious.
I hope I don't regret not copyrighting it, not that I have the faintest idea how.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Really? I only noticed his name a couple days ago, but I'll take your word for it.
Nothing right-wing about it.
I, personally, believe that marriage should have NOTHING to do with the State. Contracts and Property are the pervue of the State (Law of Man). Marriage is of the Church (Law of Church). [btw, BOTH are under the "Law of God", i.e. love god and each other]
What I would love to hear is this:
the State will ONLY issue or regulate civil union contracts, powers of attorny, executer of such and such contracts, property and debt contracts. The Church (any legal church) will ONLY issue or regulate Marriage or other Church contracts or powers.
What I would really love to hear:
Looking at our high rate of divorce, Church Marriage can actually strengthen our society. You can enter into a civil union, or divide your property or executive powers anyway you like with the state. You can only enter a marriage under the regulations of your church, and if you break it it's a SIN.
Oh, I know I didn't express that clearly but emphasising Marriage as the SACRAMENT it is, and the SIN consequences of breaking it, would -in this theoretic oversimplfied scenerio- STRENGTHEN church marriage.
I would like to hear at least ONE person on the (anti-gay marriage side) saying "It's not that I find Gays icky, I just want Marriage to be more important."
....then we parishioners can work on changing Church Law.
Well as long as government-provided benefits discriminate between married couples and single people, either all people should be allowed to marry, or those benefits should be equal among all people, without regard to marital status.
That's just what we need: More effective guilt-tripping of people so that they are loathe to get out of dysfunctional and pathological relationships. How about if, instead, we just begin to break down the fairy tale expectations of what marriage is "supposed" to be.
kernelz is our resident homophobic troll. Every time an article about LGBT rights comes up, you can be sure that he will show up to post some homophobic stuff.
Obviously, you know nothing about science.
Even more obviously, you know nothing about law.
In other words, a homophobe.
A great research project is entitled "Evolutions Rainbow".
http://www.amazon.com/Evolutions-Rainbow-Diversity-Gender-Sexuality/dp/0520240731
This great book tells that nature has tons of examples of pairing up between same-sex individuals. In fact, it is more commmon in nature then opposite sex couples.
"This great book tells that nature has tons of examples of pairing up between same-sex individuals. In fact, it is more commmon in nature then opposite sex couples."
That is all lies and false propaganda. I have been around animals all of my life. I grew up on a dairy farm and I know first hand that none of our cattle were homosexual or bisexual.
A male dog is so horney he will hump another male dog or maple stump but as soon as an in-heat bitch dog shows up there is no question about his orientation.
Dairy farmers watch their cows to determine if it is their time to be bred. When a cow is in heat she will stand and let the other cows hump her, but NONE of them are homosexual.
Some creatures are bisexual but there isn't one mammal that is homosexual.
I hope you can deal with truth.
Being homosexual is determined by 'what you do'.
Why does the homosexual feel that it is important that I know the other person's sexual orientation. Please just stay out of my face.
Yes, science by scientists who have also been around animals all their lives is lies and propaganda.
But your claims about dogs are of course truth as handed down by God.
"Being homosexual is determined by 'what you do'."
Let's accept this argument for the moment. So what?
"
Why does the homosexual feel that it is important that I know the other person's sexual orientation. Please just stay out of my face."
Why do you feel that you have a right to tell LGBT how to live?
Strange as it might seem to you, LGBT people don't want to get in your face. They want YOU and your ilk to get out of their faces.
So, Kernels, anybody who does not produce children is not married? Thank you for confirming my understanding of the definition of marriage: ensuring that a woman is under the correct reproductive contract to a man.
What shocks me is that there are so many repressed homosexuals. Who would have thunk it? :) :) Nothing to be envious about, really. I mean why else the rabidity?
While I'm dismayed to see the throw-back opinions (you know bare-foot & pregnant), this is the USA and everyone has a right to it! I'd like to know when schools started teaching "heterosexual marriage", cause looking at our childrens' test scores I suggest that they stick to reading, writing, and arithmetic! Yes, I know the argument "G-d made Adam & Eve, NOT Adam & Steve, however, it hasn't occurred to anyone that G-d did make Steve; maybe not at the same time, but Steve was created by G-d too!
Is it just me, because with ALL of the issues that are facing US as a nation (you know takeover by the Oligarchy, Congressmen whoring for personal gain, etc.), paying attention to another adults love-life/sexual orientation is just sooo NOT on the list! Or could it be that those protesting, are either just soooo miserable in their own lives, or they have a "secret in the closet" that they aren't sharing?!?!
Homophobic bigots love to hector us about the "sanctity of the institution of marriage." Here's a hot flash for them: there's no such thing as the "institution of marriage." That's an abstraction. There's my marriage, and yours, and so on.
In law, much consideration is given to the issue of "standing." I'm still waiting for one straight couple to step up and swear their marriage is so shaky that if if even one gay couple gets married, theirs will fall apart.
If that's not the case, how the hell is it anybody else's business?
I have said it before, and I will say it again . . .
How pathetically insecure does one have to be about themselves and their own marriage, to believe that two gay people loving each other is somehow a threat to them?
If the repeal goes ahead, boycott Maine Lobster. Leviticus says it is unclean.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
But thats IMPOSTER Lobster! As it turns out the majority of MAINE lobster is in fact from Nova Scotia!
In Nova Scotia same sex marriage is legal.
Those Gays are SO clever. They have already corrupted the Lobsters!
(This comes from a rather funny article I read in last weekends paper. The Governer of Maine advances a Campaign to halt the selling of "Imposter Lobsters" from Canada in Restaraunts. The notion of "Lobster Citizenship" had me laughing.Not even all Lobsters are equal apparently. Them dern Canadian Lobsters want the same rights as Maine Lobsters!!)
Homophobia is wrong. Thus saith your lordship. Now let' be done with all this about nothing garbage.
Any good son of the Church of England should know this now. Hey, how about that openly gay bishop of the church in New Hampshire?
AD
Preview!
Homophobia is wrong. Thus saith your lordship. Now let' be done with all this about nothing garbage.
AD
Preview!
Homophobia is wrong. Thus saith your lordship. Now let' be done with all this about nothing garbage.
AD
I guess no one has ever heard of separation of church and state.
I love the "two men can't reproduce" argument. Some women can not reproduce should that stop them? Hmmmm gays could always adopted especially with you conservative idiots being anti-abortion (yes we know how you like to deal with things, use guns and take a life to save an unborn life that could die in the womb).
I really am starting to hate the US more and more.
Religion IMO is the source of many problems in this world.
EQUALITY if you do not know what it means look it up.
"Everybody Is Supposed to be Equal In This Country"
ha!, try telling that to the native American Indians. In a country where ignorance and greed rule the day there will never be equality, don't let all the suit and ties and modern technology fool you, the earth is still flat!
This was about the first immigrants?
Mr. Philip Spooner said absolutely everything that needs to be said about this subject.
And lets see someone try to make some kind liberal radical atheist, etc. boogeyman out of this honorable man and his sons.
"Today, my second grader has reading, writing, geometry and gym. I think her heterosexual marriage class is on Monday."
Actually, Abby, it was today in reading class:
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2009/10/29-1