Gay Marriage to Alfred: Your Thoughts

Talk of the day, apparently

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/us/a-conservative-catholic-now-backs-same-sex-marriage.html

He sounds like a man who has come to realize that religion and politics have such divergent purposes, means and goals that there is no sense in mixing the two and expecting anything good to come of it. This pov is not going to fly with the bishops, who are chest deep in politics.

this catholic school recently cancelled a talk by a pro-gay-marriage philosopher

http://www.providence.edu/media/press-releases/Pages/provost-message.aspx

The Administration’s decision to cancel the event had nothing to do with Dr. Corvino. We were concerned, rather, that the event had strayed from what had originally been proposed – a presentation of philosophical and legal arguments in support of same-sex marriage by Dr. Corvino opposite a presentation of opposing arguments by a similar person of national repute.

As most of you know, Dr. Dana Dillon, a highly respected and accomplished member of our Theology Department, was asked at the last minute to participate in the event. She graciously agreed to do so. However, the Administration felt that it was unfair to ask Dr. Dillon, a theologian, to debate opposite someone who would be presenting philosophical and legal arguments, not theological ones.

something something meek

Poppy and Barb Bush!

Okay, that kind of warmed my heart, and I am someone who often goes out of his way to avoid romanticizing H.W. But "really old grandpa guy who probably you'd expect to be kind of uptight about these things is actually touched to be invited," etc., is hard to resist.

Would have been cool to see a little more of that tolerance and forward thinking twenty-five years ago, but...

pretty sure Poppy had a patrician's disregard for the perfidy of homosexuality even twenty years ago; he was just a coward about it.

http://www.towleroad.com/2013/09/barilla-pasta-chief-we-dont-like-gays-they-can-eat-another-brand.html

Like there are any gays left eating pasta.

it's the only thing I cook, middle-aged celibacy is liberating.

I'm eating spaghetti tonight!

Sorry, that was the brain fog. I'm not sure where my ketones are right now.

I've been coupled for a number of years. Pasta every night!

pasta in the morning, pasta in the evening, pasta at suppertime

who will fill the gay pasta niche

So we can all now marry Don Jon?

Betraying your hand there, sir. Anyway, yes:

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_jersey&id=9264965

should I be giggling at "betraying your hand" as much as I am

Success is achieved.

Don Jon never betrayed his hand.

Re: New Jersey -- Christie's dropping the appeal so it's done in full:

http://www.politickernj.com/68996/christie-administration-drops-appeal-same-sex-marriage-case

oh, I shoulda put this here instead of the gay thread (by a lesbian columnist who alternately pleases and enrages me):

You might get immigration rights and tax write-offs, but when the State joins you for better or worse, richer or poorer, it also means you’ve had all the benefits you’re going to get and are mostly on your own. If one gets sick, the other foots the bill while society stands by until your last thin dime has been spent. Without a pre-nup, debts are inherited more often than lotto winnings. Vultures circle when your partner’s at death’s door....

I’m not arguing that same-sex marriage is bad. I’m glad we have it now. It has a symbolic meaning, and it’s useful. Equality always is. I’m just not sure it’s progress in a more essential way. It ropes us back into a world we escaped at great cost. And for what? Most of the straight people I know aren’t happy in the land of matrimony. With rare exceptions, marriage seems like a musty room with all the windows glued shut by responsibilities and routine. And often acrimony. More than once I’ve gotten the impression that they are envious of my exile. No rights. No obligations, except moral ones.

http://gaycitynews.com/indigestible-marriage/

a musty room with all the windows glued shut by responsibilities and routine. And often acrimony.

Accepting responsibilities is what divides adults from children. Routine is inseperable from most ways of life apart from piracy. Acrimony, where it exists, is a sign of failure in a relationship, usually because one or both are not doing the work necessary to dissolve it.

Accepting responsibilities is what divides adults from children

There are responsibilities, then there are conventions treated as such. Anyway, I need to duck out for lunch with the Lost Boys.

conventions like, say, compromise

my hunch was he was speaking of monogamy. if so, it's no skin off my nose how partners choose to handle that one, but 'open' marriages have plenty of hazards to negotiate, too.

Conventions like not being the center of one's own universe, more like.

Thought this was a great read

http://americanreviewmag.com/stories/A-gay-awakening

I noticed a pic on the sidebar that showed the American Review magazine cover photo with Batman & Robin figurines on a wedding cake. This may have struck the editors as a slyly humorous choice, but it was remarkably tone deaf, considering the insistent conflation of homosexuality and pedophilia in anti-gay propaganda. Robin's age is somewhat indeterminate, but he is never portrayed as an adult.

True, Chris O'Donnell is no adult.

You're telling me this subtext is new to you?

The jokes about Batman & Robin go back to when they were first published, so, no. What I am saying is that it is an unfortunate image to project as the essence of gay marriage, since it only reinforces a negative stereotype of older gay men preying on sub-adult boys. capiche?

Robin's age is somewhat indeterminate, but he is never portrayed as an adult.

except, apparently, by Christopher Nolan?

like not being the center of one's own universe

We die alone. That's my fortune cookie for the day.

I know plenty of single people who are very giving and altruistic, but keep putting those heteronormative pegs in their proper holes.

"brought to you by the Human Rights Campaign"

We die alone.

what a weird sentence

it's a life sentence

(shit, more royalties for the DKs)

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0bpwnzjc11qf2dg2o1_500.jpg

I mean, you and your SO could drive over a cliff together, that wouldn't be dying alone

heh, I have no memory of that line in that film. (liked it, saw it twice, way under the avg I realize)

Thelma & Louise, only once

that's one more time than I have, I was thinking more a "Stan" situation

South Park or Eminem?

lol Eminem, wasn't aware of a South Park Stan/Wendy suicide pact

Stan Marsh singing "I wanna die with you, Wendy, on the streets tonight in an everlasting kiss" would be kinda awesome.

Okay, Hawaii's senate just passed gay marriage so it's up to the house.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/229943741.html

i don't know half the hawaiian words in this but you can still kind of get the point:

http://kumuhina.tumblr.com/post/65536472499/hawaiian-values-differ-from-western-traditions

what's Hawaiian for "sodomy rocks"

If you support the Westernized Christian view of marriage, then so be it — but please don’t pretend that your choice has anything to do with Hawaiian thought or values. You have joined the ranks of the ones without a culture, without a language and without a soul, the ones our ancestors called haole.

ether