Posted on 06/27/2015 7:35:43 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It’s tough to be a gay conservative. I’m not complaining – it’s just true. I normally “politically identify” myself as an American first, conservative second…And I happen to be gay. But today is one of those days that really shines a light for me on being a living contradiction (in most people’s eyes).
I find myself very conflicted. I’m pleased with the outcome – though this has been an evolution for me. Yeah, I know – just like Barack Obama.
Truth is, before I started the GayPatriot blog, I wrote an op-ed about a decade ago for the Washington Blade, DC’s gay newspaper, and admitted that I was very ambivalent about “gay marriage.” I don’t remember much of the specifics of what I wrote and the article doesn’t appear online anymore. I did caution that the path toward same-sex marriage (I preferred civil unions) should be a long one and the people, not the judiciary, should decide.
I’ve been able to find only one excerpt from that op-ed:
“The backlash over gay marriage (in 2003) doesn’t come as a surprise to me. Since two-thirds of Americans (in 2003) oppose gay marriage, and the same percentage support legal protections for gays in the workplace, then why… are the radical gay groups forcing marriage down the throats of America at this time?”
As I’m sure you can guess — that didn’t make me a popular invitee to the fancy gay cocktail parties in D.C. where I lived at the time. I pointed out that before the 2004 Federal Marriage Amendment push, the gay activists were not taking the marriage issue seriously.
“We have Rosie O’Donnell who says she’s getting married in front of TV cameras merely because President Bush is opposed to it. Well, that’s one sure way for opponents to question the sincerity of the true commitment to gay marriage, isn’t it?”
And that is the point that I think has changed for me. It’s a generational change, you see. When I “came out” at age 26 in the mid-1990s, my friends and I would have laughed at anyone who suggested we have gay marriage. We were living in a subculture, separate from the mainstream, and we liked it. We also had very different concerns, as it was the peak of HIV/AIDS. My friends and I were probably the last age cohort to see friends die en masse.
And yes, the radical gay leftist groups originally didn’t talk about love and commitment. They talked about “fairness” and “getting back at the straights.” That all fell flat with me.
So it was left to a younger generation, who grew up in different circumstances than I, to lead the country on this issue. That’s the way life evolves.
What is frustrating for me is how incompetent the Republican Party handled this issue. Karl Rove – the progressive voice of illegal amnesty for demographic reasons – led the charge for the 2004 Federal Marriage Amendment. I have argued for years that the GOP should have led on the issue by supporting civil unions with strong religious liberty protections. Yes, the Supreme Court may have eventually sided toward “marriage” – but at least one political party would have been in the game and not alienating Millennials along the way.
So one can be happy at the outcome of today’s court decision, but not happy with the process or the rationale that it took to get there.
This morning, my partner of 15 years and I looked at each other and jokingly realized that perhaps – under common law – we were already legally married. So, like any good American, I immediately called our lawyer.
Ah, this brings up yet another sticky wicket about federalizing marriage laws. “Common Law” marriage is not defined the same way nationally, is it? At least not before this SCOTUS decision? So, what does this mean for the people who, for example, live with a platonic roommate of the same sex, for economic reasons??
Plenty of married people sleep under the same roof, yet do not sleep in the same bedroom.
This decision may have opened a Pandora’s Box of gigantic proportions. Think Medicaid and the laws about impoverishing one “spouse” to care for the other.
Evil reigns and the barbarians are in control. And it becomes worse, day by day. Goodbye America.
From the author’s own recollection to the 1990s, he never wanted to be married. His was an alternative lifestyle CHOICE.
For years now (since Lawrence v. Texas) they’ve demanded the ability to get married. They bashed down the institution of marriage, attacked the church, attacked photographers and coordinators who didn’t want to participate in their ceremony, etc. and now they shrug and say “not for me”.
He joked that he’d check with his lawyer to see in they were common law married. doesn’t sound like he was concerned to go out of state and ‘make it happen’.
This was all about ‘in your face’ and not the love lorn desires of a minority subset (those who want to get married) out of a minority subset (2% of the population).
How many of these ‘marriages’ will remain open relationships?
Poppy to Elaine, "Who gives you the right?!?"
Elaine responds, "The Supreme Court!"
Until that moment, I never thought people looked to the Supreme Court, or any other earthly power, to inform their consciences. Apparently, a great many do.
So was Obama’s marriage to Stanley legal then or what?
He was married to another woman at the time but being a muslim, polygamy was the law.
LoveWins?
So, celebrating and proudly participating in depravity is a conservative attribute?
Sorry, honey...you are NOT a conservative. You are sick, and should seek help.
3. Does Virginia have "Common Law Marriages?" No. A common law marriage is one by agreement of two people who consider themselves married without any formal ceremony or license and hold themselves out as married. Such arrangements are not marriages in Virginia, but they will be recognized here if they were valid in the state where they took place and if they were between people who would have been eligible to marry under Virginia law.
AMEN! I totally agree. A Tyrannical Government is evil on all people whether gay or straight, non Christians or Christians. I do not support gay marriage nor do I support Heterosexual shacking up before marriage.
However I am more concern right now with ISIS and a tyrannical government that will give you the option “Do you want the shower or oven?”
You cannot be socially liberal and fiscally conservative.
The abandonment of the nuclear family lays the groundwork for bigger, more intrusive government, because something has to take place of a traditional mother and father.
The Congress can impeach a supreme court member for lack of “good behavior”. Why haven’t they???
If Congress believes the court is acting politically, they can impeach those members that are.
Why haven’t they??
Oxymoron of the year award winner.
Sure you can. You just say “It’s a lesser evil” and it becomes conservatism and fixes everything. I know. Sounds stupid. But a big chunk of FR and America swear by it.
Anyone devoid of the strain of social conservatism, whether a faggot, a libertarian, or a northeastern RINO, will always stab you in the back. ALWAYS. Smilingly. They will continually be devoted more to their own degeneracy than to conservatism, no matter how much they espouse the latter.
The abandonment of the nuclear family lays the groundwork for bigger, more intrusive government, because something has to take place of a traditional mother and father.Bingo! Homosexuals are well less than two percent of the population and very few of those actually have any real interest in committed marriage. They are just being used by evil leftist as the latest convenient tool in their attack on strong, traditional enduring families that produce moral, upstanding citizens with no need for the sugar daddy state and feral government handouts. (Sods will be the first in the line to the ovens if true tyranny ever takes hold.)
This trend of the breakdown of the family and people shunning reproduction for self-serving reasons is a far greater threat to us all than ISIS is or ever will be.
I don’t care about this defect. Just because he is “conservative” doesn’t erase the fact he is perverted. Be gone with him.
They aren't about to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
He can now be found annoying FReepers in our own back yard.
Bingo!
I was trolling for that exact answer! Congress approves of what the court has been doing, is too cowardly to do it themselves, and can no focus the blame on the court.
What they fail to realize is some people know they can override the court and can hold the court accountable by impeaching court members, but, they approve of the courts actions so they won’t.
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