Gay marriage makes the world shrug, By Mark Morford

[madokie]

Now if the rest of the states will follow suit this will be a much better place for all of us. (madokie)



Argentina, at last check, is not yet writhing in flames. Canada, as far as I can see from my window, is still right up there, stoic and mild, smelling of pine trees and bitumen, watching lots of hockey, shooting guns, being Canadian. The Netherlands? Why, still crisp and clean, efficiently blonde as ever. It's shocking, really.

After all, you'd think they'd be downright miserable. You'd think they'd be in country-wide group therapy, hating and hurling and spitting, maybe a few riots, some stabbings, panic in the streets, the very fabric of their various shell-shocked societies unraveling like Mel Gibson at a bat mitzvah.

In fact, it would appear that millions of people across a surprisingly large number of dashing, industrious countries all over the world -- including Belgium, Spain, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and even adorable little Iceland -- are still not yet imploding, not yet suffering the furious wrath of God, not yet dying in unchecked anguish before our very eyes.

What to make of it? After all, in each and every one of these sinful nations, gay people have been happily and legally getting married (and, presumably, divorced, remarried and tossed about on the same socio-emotional rollercoaster as their straight brethren) every single day, for months and years and -- in the case of the Netherlands -- nearly a decade now. ...


(Full URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/08/06/notes080610.DTL&nl=fix)

[saltpoint]

1. Morford is lots of fun. Of course he has what the fundies

and nutbags call "San Francisco values," meaning what he says threatens them, mocks their hollow objections on social issues, and worse all, exposes them as nitwits and haters.

Recommended.

[RKP5637]

2. As one of my ex-republican friends would say, that might be, but you can't believe

they are being truthful. That's how paranoid and afraid of anything conservatives are... like we still have a bunch of them thinking WMD's will turn up any minute in Iraq, that Obama's birth certificate is a fake and OMG, the Gay Agenda, whatever the fuck that's supposed to be.

We have so many in this country that are so ignorant and gullible, and live in their little rigid worlds of conservativism and denial... and after all, who would trust those foreigners to tell the truth.

I had one conservative tell me one day you can't trust anything (news/commentary) unless it's from the USA (AKA Fox News). That's how unreachable these fools are...

[SPedigrees]

4. I can't speak for the rest of the world or even the USA

but I can speak for my state. Vermont did not crumble when we enacted the 1st civil union law in this country, followed 10 years later by marriage equality. Nor did my now 41 year old hetero marriage crumble when these laws were put into effect. If not for the news stories I would be completely unaware that equal rights have been conferred upon the gay community in my state. I can think of no other issue that has less impact on my life, my state, and my straight marriage unless it is the mating rituals of blue footed boobies on the Galapagos islands.

One has to wonder how a matter which does not affect them in any way can matter so much to some supposedly heterosexual people.

[RKP5637]

6. That's what I always ponder too, how they can get so rabid over a matter that

does not affect them in any way. I've noticed just in my own highly unscientific view that it appears to generally be the weak, timid, insecure and those who are down deep unsure of their own sexual identity that seem to express the greatest concern.... and combined with that are those that follow deeply religious convictions without thinking through IMO what they are saying. Their comments and reactions are hard-wired, and they will probably be the same their entire lives.

I had a conservative tell me during Bush's reign that if they ever thought Bush was not 100% correct, his government and the direction of the country, it would shatter their life. They just could not conceive that the wars might be wrong and the country was headed for financial problems. To me, that's how fragile most conservatives are... IMO conservatism attracts fragile and afraid people. It seems they are afraid of just about everything and often highly inflexible insecure people that must cling to something conservative right or wrong.

[xchrom]

3. recommend

[pipi_k]

5. Surprisingly enough...

even tiny little Massachusetts has not yet been overrun by hordes of locusts and fanged frogs.

It hasn't dropped into the ocean and it hasn't been zapped into dust by God.

And heterosexual marriages are still "safe".


But maybe the gay marriage haters think it's all just a fluke or something...

[RKP5637]

7. They would probably accuse you of lying. n/t

[gratuitous]

8. Their worst fears realized

Same sex marriage is recognized and the sky didn't fall. What could be worse than that for the bigots? And after all their carefully crafted fear-mongering, bible-thumping, wild-eyed rhetoric. Why, the very pedestrian aftermath makes them look like raving lunatics, not to be taken seriously.