CNN is now reporting that Santorum told Romney, “Use
same-sex marriage as a weapon”.
Friday, Romney touched on same-sex marriage in a speech at
Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. Even so, CNN reports that the LDS church is now
at least saying that gays should not be discriminated against in employment and
housing as a group. Fox has a story on
Romney’s speech here. The New York Times has a story here.
CNN also reported on an upcoming vote Tuesday in the
California legislature on whether to ban reparative therapy, advocated by the
so-called “ex-gay” movement. Saturday,
CNN presented to story of Ryan Kendall, who was forced by his parents to
undergo reparative therapy given by NARTH.
CNN presented Joseph Nicolosi
(book review here on Jan. 21, 2009 in books blog) and Reekers.
All of this sharpens some pencils for me. I don’t personally have a problem with
maintaining the traditional meaning of the word “marriage” as a dictionary
matter. But I do care about the effect
of “family values” on those who live outside the world of conventional
marriage, and the attitude that some families believe they are entitled to the
tribal or biological loyalty of “everyone”, and that the marriages of parents
need this loyalty.
A lot of my own experience revolves around the idea of “upward
affiliation”, and accomplishing something by supporting “virtue”. I can imagine that had I grown up with the
value of personal lineage imprinted on my motives, I still could have experienced
“upward affiliation” in a heterosexual context, and demand that a female
partner be “perfect” so that I would have “perfect” children (not medically
sound). It sounds as though the “family
values” crowd is concerned about the idea that every person adopt the purposes
of the family as his own, which is a concept that digs deeper than just sexual
orientation. But it does address the
question of the need of others for someone like me to find passion in previously
uninvited situations.
Friday night, at Cobalt 30 Degrees in Washington, was packed
as before, and pretty wild by about 1 AM or so.
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