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njlauren -> RE: -=An alt lifestyle milestone victory - gay marriage legal today, DOMA overturned. Are we next?=- (6/26/2013 6:26:08 PM)
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To paraphrase Neil Armstrong, it was a small step..but an important one. I am glad this happened, among other things, the federal government should not be figuring out who is legally married, for a lot of reasons. My guess is that more states will make same sex marriage legal and enough will do so that it will become unwieldy and the courts will act.....
In any event, it is about time, because this affects a lot of people. For the parents and friends of gay couples, it means they can go to bed and know their loved ones are protected as they were. For trans people who transition, it means their marriage is still good, instead of in a giant gray area. More importantly, to me this sets a standard and says that as a country, we are about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and unlike the conservatives who claims the last was about property *gag*, it says we have the right to live our lives as we wish, unfettered by religion or culture or the majority shoving their beliefs down our throats, which has been an ongoing battled for 300 years, and still goes on:)..
RS, with all due respects, some of your last message are incorrect. First of all, The Obama administration decided DOMA was illegal several years ago, and refused to defend it in court as such (some republicans clamored to impeach Obama for not doing his job; sorry to tell them, but they have the right not to enforce laws they think are illegal), and DOMA itself was defended, not by the AG, but by the GOP members of congress who appealed the lower court ruling.........so it wasn't today he decided it was illegal, he and holder said it was several years ago.
And yes, almost all the hysteria against gays can be traced back to religion, whether atheists are homophobes is meaningless, because the bias can be traced back to religious belief, there is no doubt on that. That said, I would be careful about claiming how the problem is Christianity or Christians as a whole; there are more then a few Christians fighting for the rights of gays to marry, I belonged to an Episcopal church that did same sex weddings and considered it fully sacramental, the Episcopal Church as a whole, the UCC, support gays rights to marry as do every Jewish tradition except the orthodox. Among Catholics, almost 60% support same sex marriage despite what their church says, and apparently vote that way, too. As far ad "In God we Trust", that came about in the 1950's along with "under God" in the pledge, a piece of mischief that was primarily promoted by the Knights of Columbus (and folks, do yourself a favor, if you ever see K of C's collecting money supposedly to support mentally retarded kids and such, walk the other way; the Knights of Columbus spent about 3 million in California supporting gettting prop 8 passed, they are extreme right wing uber Catholics and no friend to anyone who is different). In any event, there are a lot of people of faith who aren't the way you think.....and it isn't fair to paint them that way. The irony is, as an issue, homosexuality in the bible appears a couple of times, but you would think it was all Christ thought about (which he didn't, since Christ never mentioned it)....
Ah, would love to be back in some of my old haunts tonight or this weekend, to see the happiness flowing, and the Pride March this sunday is going to be something else I suspect:)
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