What's he on about now?

In case the articles, essays and opinions throughtout this site just weren't enough for you, here's my online diary (a.k.a. 'blog'). It's as close as you'll come to the inside of my head, so don't say I didn't warn you
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   Tuesday, November 16, 2004

   YOU SEE? THIS IS WHAT I KEEP SAYING

The just-passed gay marriage ban in Utah has had the usual unintended consequences for heterosexual people. A man has been charged with ignoring a restraining order issued by his former girlfriend and his attorney is arguing that the new ban's "prohibition of legal recognition of any domestic union that is substantially equivalent to a marriage" makes enforcing the restraining order unconstitutional.

These sorts of things have happened before -- straight people arrested under vaguely-written sodomy laws and what not. If conservatives keep throwing around the 'war' label, I guess these people could be considered 'collateral damage.' I keep insisting that until we decide on some fair standard of marriage for all people, these sort of legal wrangles will continue, with a lot of pain for those involved.

Meanwhile, Thomas Caramagno, Associate Professor of English at the University of Nebraska, has weighed in with his necessary book, "Irreconcilable Differences? Intellectual Stalemate in the Gay Rights Debate." Caramagno rightly asks:

What happened to the "debate" in "the gay rights debate"? Moral condemnations and demonizing stereotypes do not advance useful dialog. The disputants have become perfect enemies, divided on every issue with such intensity that consensus--or even detente--seems impossible...No single profile for homosexuals exists that can encompass the diverse individuals who comprise the lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered / transsexual (LGBT) population, just as there is no monolithic model for heterosexuals who oppose legal protections for GLBTs. The gay rights debate is stalemated because each side oversimplifies and pathologizes the other's perspective.

And because the other guys are a bunch of redneck bigots, of course!

Labels: America, homo-a-go-go, Orwell says hi, politics, religion