Everyone is Gay Now

There is applause from all the usual corners at New York's passing of a marriage equity law that will allow same sex couples to marry. Because it's New York, one of the most important states in every measurable category (demographics, economic impact), the willingness to change the norms is seen as a foreshadow of wider changes on a national level. They have rushed to get President Obama's two cents on the matter, and he has remained uncommitted to alienating the portion of the electorate that might not be too thrilled at the momentous social change going on. Possibly, he might not believe the change is good. (And woe to those who buck the tide, for isn't the tide always right?)

Those against same sex marriage usually take the religious perspective, and point out that only a man and woman can procreate and that the Bible gives no explicit endorsement of other arrangements. Another explanation is that allowing gay marriage is a slippery slope that will just result in the acceptance of other alternative or deviant arrangements and there will be no legal underpinning to prevent that.  If all else fails, (and thus far it has), the impact on children is brought forward. The argument is made that same sex couples will have a bad effect on children by influencing them toward a future gay lifestyle; the gay life itself is assumed to be bad without a lot of explication in the same way that we know soda is bad without knowing all the science behind it.

We have an opinion on all of this which we have probably stated in other posts and have no intention of repeating here beyond saying that it's amazing how everything that was one way 20 or 40 years ago in terms of public and professional opinion can completely change to the opposite. We also take issue with the idea that the majority (the tide) at any point in history is indicative of "what should be". Societies often do things, and reap their own loss or reward later. And not all social change is created equal or represents the same thing.

Our second thought is that this huge show of liberalism will benefit Obama and represents a huge force that will ultimately blunt the force of the Republican candidates who on the whole do not believe in same sex anything.  Republicans will surely rally the base over the issue, while riling the larger electorate, which is filled with people willing to go along with most anything that seems to be good at the time.