``The more we push the [queer] envelope, the more we get pushed back,'' said Stevenson, 48.Thank God! And may it ever be so!
Posted on 08/20/2003 10:07:43 AM PDT by NativeNewYorker
FARMINGTON, Mich. - Jan Stevenson plans a summer wedding, a small affair with 30 or 40 friends and family. She hasn't picked a chapel or even a city. But she has picked a country.
She and partner Susan Horowitz will marry next summer in Canada. The gay couple's union will be a ceremony laced with private sentiment and public symbolism.
``This is the line in the sand, the marriage issue,'' said Horowitz, 51, of Farmington. ``We are their vision of hell.''
It's in to be out. In the bedroom, gays now can do what they want without fear of being arrested. In the office, many companies, as well as one state, offer benefits to same-sex couples. And gay couples can cross into Canada and get married.
It's a confusing time for gay Americans, who are both more accepted and more reviled amid the nation's social, political and legal mainstream.
``The more we push the envelope, the more we get pushed back,'' said Stevenson, 48.
Emotions are likely to become more frayed in coming months, as the Supreme Courts of Massachusetts and New Jersey consider whether state bans on same-sex unions are constitutional. Striking down the bans wouldn't legalize gay marriages, but it could open the door to the kind of same-sex civil unions now recognized in Vermont.
On June 12, the Canadian government announced it would let stand a court ruling allowing gay marriage. U.S. couples could be considered married in Canada but return to single status when they cross back into the United States.
On June 26, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down laws in Texas and 12 other states that prohibited sex between gays. The court described same-sex relationships as a personal bond protected by the Constitution. Many conservatives feared Canadian-style same-sex marriages were next, a fear Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia voiced in his dissent.
President Bush and the Vatican both spoke out against gay marriage with Bush calling homosexuals ``sinners.'' The pope called on Catholics and other moral people to strive to defeat efforts to legalize same-sex unions. And there is growing support for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
Erika Block thinks the backlash goes beyond opposition to gay marriages.
``There is a backlash that is consistent with similar situations in history,'' said Block, a 40-year-old lesbian from Ann Arbor, Mich. ``The more progress and visibility, the more fear there is among people who oppose it. Racial violence got worse as civil rights increased. In a lot of ways, this is the same thing.''
The recent vote by the Episcopal Church to elect the church's first openly gay bishop is likely to keep gay issues in the limelight.
``People who are already frightened by association with gays, this terrifies them,'' said Jeff Montgomery, executive director of the Triangle Foundation, a gay support organization in Detroit. ``They see this as the total fall of civilization.''
That's exactly what Coral Ridge Ministries fears will happen. The Christian broadcasting organization produces ``The Coral Ridge Hour,'' which airs on about 600 television stations. The TV and radio ministry has collected more than 50,000 signatures online in support of a gay-marriage ban amendment.
Gay marriage, or even Vermont's civil unions, ``would empty marriage of its meaning,'' said John Aman, spokesman for the ministry. ``It's not as if marriage is in a strong position now. The last thing we need is another attack.''
Stevenson and Horowitz, chief financial officer and publisher, respectively, of the gay newspaper Between the Lines, have thought a lot about marriage. And they've decided to do it.
They will marry next year on their 10th anniversary as a couple, promising to stay together for better or for worse.
``Right now, we're dealing with the 'yuck' factor,'' Horowitz said. ``It may take several generations ... (but) things will change.''
Editors: Can pair with GAYMARRIAGE and GAYAMENDMENT on Washington wire.
Keep going the way you're going, Ms. Horowitz, and you'll find out about Hell firsthand. And then it will be too late.
Pray for people like this and pray for our nation.
}:-)4
Homosexuality/Lesbianism is just another 'New Age'....cult.
Cult mindset.......cultures.
Guard/Watch your children.
They have no clue how close Hell really is within their sight.
So are we. /sigh/
``The more we push the [queer] envelope, the more we get pushed back,'' said Stevenson, 48.Thank God! And may it ever be so!
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