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Momma said wonk you out

« They're Gazing at Our Navels | Main | Weird Science »

The End of the World as We Know It

The only thing dumber than the name “Mitt Romney” is the most recent idea being espoused by the asshole who goes by it.  Pam’s House Blend links to an article in the Boston Globe, titled “Romney links gay marriage, US prestige,” which excerpts the Massachusetts governor’s address to Utah Republicans Friday night:

“America cannot continue to lead the family of nations around the world if we suffer the collapse of the family here at home,” Romney said, calling the Supreme Judicial Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts “a blow to the family.”

Considering that the legalization of gay marriage has absolutely no effect whatsoever on straight marriages and the families that result from them, extending the right to marry and start families to lesbians and gays can in no way be described as “collapsing the family.”  Instead, it broadens the definition of what a family is, which would more accurately be described as “extending the family.”  Granting the same rights to the LGBT community so that they may marry and parent makes no difference to the notion of family, other than a semantic one.  Lesbians and gays already have families, and trying to legislate them out of existence is a futile task, motivated by nothing by hatred and fear.

(It’s also notable that Romney’s state is the only one to legalize gay marriage, yet has still managed to maintain the lowest divorce rate in the nation.  I wonder exactly what it will take to undermine the harbingers of doom’s claims that legalized gay marriage will cause all hell to break loose.)

''America's culture is also defined by the fact that we are a religious people," Romney said. ''We recognize our God not only in our Declaration of Independence, but even in our currency. And we are also unique in that we recognize that the family is the fundamental building block of American society."

If the family is the fundamental building block of American society, then why is it that lesbians and gays who pursue equal rights are accused of wanting “special rights”?  You know what another word for fundamental is?  Basic.  So anyone pursuing the chance to participate in one of the basic building blocks of our society surely isn’t asking for special rights, but basic rights.  Of course, disingenuous pricks like Romney know this, which is why we don’t require people to take IQ tests or be employed or be in a long-term relationship or be healthy or meet a prerequisite financial criteria before they have children or get married.  But for a reason that has no standing under a secular rule of law and no basis in logic, if the person with whom you want to express the basic right to a legally recognized family is the same sex you are, this right is denied.

Romney also gave an address to South Carolina Republicans last weekend, during which he said:

''Some [same-sex couples] are actually having children born to them." Complaining about an effort to use gender-neutral language to describe parents on birth certificates, he also said: ''It's not right on paper. It's not right in fact. Every child has a right to a mother and a father."

I love it: they’re actually having children!  Oh, the horror!  Aside from having read various studies which have indicated absolutely no developmental or other difference between children raised by straight parents and children raised by gay parents, I’ve also had a friend for over a decade who was raised by a gay father.  The only difference I see between him and most other straight guys is that he dresses better and is nicer to women.  (That’s a joke…at least the first part.)

As for every child having a right to a mother and a father, there are plenty of children who grow up without a mother or father (including, I might add, the nearly 1,000 children who have lost parents in Iraq).  Yeah, that stinks, but somehow efforts trying to prevent kids from having two loving parents of the same sex seem incredibly misplaced when there are children who are raised in single parent households all the time, with little attempt made to stem the tide of that increasingly frequent scenario.

Ten countries in Europe have legalized gay marriage (including Britain, very recently), some more than a decade ago, and despite alarmed caterwauling to the contrary, it has not undermined heterosexual marriage or families.  I would argue that '”America cannot continue to lead the family of nations around the world” if we continue to deny basic equal rights to all of our citizens.  To spread liberty, it might be suggested, one must actually practice it oneself to begin with.

-- Shakespeare’s Sister

Posted by on February 27, 2005 12:36 PM |

TrackBack

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The End of the World as We Know It:

» Our Fight from The Seventh Cross
I’ve got a post up over at Ezra Klein’s place which dissects a recent speech given by Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, in which he links gay marriage and US prestige, specifically that legalizing gay marriage would undermine our prestige. Although... [Read More]

Tracked on February 27, 2005 1:07 PM

» Our Fight from The Seventh Cross
I’ve got a post up over at Ezra Klein’s place which dissects a recent speech given by Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, in which he links gay marriage and US prestige, specifically that legalizing gay marriage would undermine our prestige. Although... [Read More]

Tracked on February 28, 2005 10:14 PM

» Our Fight from The Seventh Cross
I’ve got a post up over at Ezra Klein’s place which dissects a recent speech given by Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, in which he links gay marriage and US prestige, specifically that legalizing gay marriage would undermine our prestige. Although... [Read More]

Tracked on April 21, 2005 1:58 PM



COMMENTS (16)

God, I really hope Massachusetts throws this guy out next November. I really hope so.

Posted by: Zen | February 27, 2005 12:40 PM

If you go read the whole article, it looks like they love him in Utah. Maybe he should go hang out there.

Posted by: Shakespeare's Sister | February 27, 2005 1:15 PM

America's prestige, plus column:
-Moon landing
-perennial Olympics host
-vast material wealth
-global military force projection

America's prestige, minus column:
-support for tyrants overseas
-legacy of racial discrimination
-unequal distribution of wealth
-spotty health care system
-crappy television
-head-of-state is an ignoramus

I'll leave it to personal opinion whether broadening America's promise of civil rights goes in the plus or minus column. Do people really think less of Netherlands and Belgium? (Well, I guess Romney does.) It's clear America already has far bigger negatives that diminish prestige. I mean, don't terrorists already hate us because of the "tyrants" thing? (And, to a lesser extent, the "crappy television" thing?)

As for birth certificates, it's not unreasonable to say that the official record of someone's identity include both chromosome donors.

Lastly, mocking someone for their name is the cheapest form of insult. Even "Zephyr Teachout" is entitled to a little dignity.

Posted by: Grumpy | February 27, 2005 1:52 PM

ObPedant: Britain's 'civil partnership' law isn't gay marriage per se, and your 'ten countries' is really only two; aside from Belgium and the Netherlands, it's civil partnerships/unions. That said, the relationship between civil and religious weddings in all these countries is a bit different from that in the US.

Posted by: ahem | February 27, 2005 7:48 PM

Gay marriage opponents keep deliberately confusing unmarried couples with lone parents. In Europe (and I presume in the US as well) unmarried couples with children tend to get married later on.

I looked into the numbers last year. The US has the 3rd highest rate of lone parents (9% of all families), after Canada and the UK. That's three times as much as Sweden.

If you'd really want to garantuee each child both a mother and a father, outlaw divorce. That should be a recipe for marital bliss.

But I have a question:

I am a "European unmarried cohabitating parent". I (we) put off the wedding because a nice big fat wedding is extravagantly expensive, and since we only expect to marry once, we want to do it right. We decided that having children (and a house big enough to raise 'em in) is more important. The wedding can wait, we prefer the kiddies.

Do people in the States make different choices? Do they prefer to get wed without the party? Do they postpone children until they've saved for a wedding (or, more likely, paid off the debt)? Just curious.

Posted by: jasper emmering | February 28, 2005 5:47 AM

I think we should start conflating the right's attempts to prevent gay marriage with a general assault on all marriage. We can make use of silly "slippery slope" argument: "oh sure, TODAY they only want to prevent men from marrying men and women from marrying women, but what about tomorrow? The next logical step, once those weaker targets are out of the way, is to prevent women from marrying men and men from marrying women. Of course, they'll deny this, and perhaps they aren't themselves aware of it, but their overall hostility to marriage as an institution means that surely opposite-sex marriage is next on the chopping block after same-sex marriage is out of the way!"

Not particularly honest, but no more or less logical than many arguments made by real SSM opponents.

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