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Gay marriage, San Francisco-style (Maggie Gallagher)
Townhall.com ^ | February 26, 2004 | Maggie Gallagher

Posted on 02/26/2004 11:22:52 AM PST by Gritty

Tuesday President Bush announced his support for a constitutional amendment to protect marriage in the strongest possible terms. Meanwhile, in California, a majority of San Franciscans support gay marriage. And so, despite the fact that a few short years ago, a majority of Californians voted to define marriage in state law as the union of a man and a woman, the mayor of San Francisco decided he was above the law and ordered clerks to issue putative marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Americans have a tradition of civil disobedience, in which ordinary citizens risk jail in order to affirm a higher moral law. But last week, for the first time, Americans were treated to the spectacle of a powerful politician charged with enforcing the law instead publicly flouting it for political gain.

And advocates for same-sex marriage patted him on the back for it.

This is not the first time gay couples have been issued marriage licenses. A Colorado clerk did the same thing back in the '70s. Those marriages were null and void, and so, under California state law, are these.

The marriage application was altered, as it had to be, to fit the radically transformed institution the mayor of San Francisco tried to create. "I have given one too many wedding gifts to people in my life, and for a minute I thought it was time for payback," one of these same-sex couples told The New York Times. "But what I really want is the 1049 federal rights that come with marriage."

To make this unisex dream come true, the marriage application was the first thing that had to go. The spaces for "bride" and "groom" were eliminated, replaced by "first applicant" and "second applicant."

Do you, the first applicant, take the second applicant to be a lawfully wedded applicant for 1049 federal benefits for the rest of your life?

It is a harbinger of things to come. All of the time-honored assumptions of marriage -- bride and groom, husband and wife, mother and father -- must be rewritten to accommodate a tiny fraction of the population who wants to form alternative families. When I suggested in a recent exchange with gay civil rights advocate Evan Wolfson that marriage was about affirming the ideal that both mothers and fathers matter to children, he denounced the idea as an "offensive proposition."

People who believe they are on the civil rights crusade of the century have little tolerance for reasoned debate; they show little concern over the larger impact that radically redefining marriage could have on the next generation, directly and indirectly. "How could this affect you and your family?" a Human Rights Campaign spokesman practically screamed at me on ABC's "Nightline," as I began to explain how marriage will change if we let this happen. But that's just the point. Sometimes, someone has to stand up for the common good.

A recent Winston Group poll circulated by the Alliance for Marriage (which opposes same-sex marriage) asked Americans if they support a constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Sixty-one percent said yes.

In what amounts to a bit of interesting push-polling, the pollsters next asked: "If gay marriage were made legal and schools were then required to change their curriculum to treat gay marriages in the same manner as traditional marriages, would you favor or oppose gay marriage?"

Opposition jumped to 69 percent, with just 24 percent of Americans favoring single-sex marriage.

I call it a "push-poll," yet it accurately describes just one of many consequences of gay marriage: Home economics classes, abstinence education, marriage and family life courses, even teen pregnancy prevention courses -- anywhere the word "marriage" is used in public schools, the new unisex version of marriage could be pushed.

Marriage is not a private application for federal benefits. It is a shared public act, a social institution that depends on a common, shared culture of marriage.

Or not, as the case may be, if the special-interests have their way in San Francisco.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: civilunion; homosexualagenda; maggiegallagher; marriage; samesexmarriage; sf; stunt

1 posted on 02/26/2004 11:22:52 AM PST by Gritty
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To: Gritty
How can the Mayor and others brake the law and the police or government is not arresting someone ?
2 posted on 02/26/2004 11:27:57 AM PST by ptavares
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To: Gritty
Isn't this special?

Rosie & Kelli getting hitched today....ooooohhhh


3 posted on 02/26/2004 11:28:42 AM PST by Seeking the truth (Some oldies/newbies are really full of themselves, aren't they?)
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To: little jeremiah
Ping


What We Can Do To Help Defeat the "Gay" Agenda


Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links (Version 1.1)


The Stamp of Normality

4 posted on 02/26/2004 11:31:25 AM PST by EdReform (Support Free Republic - All donations are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!)
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To: Gritty

The above photo is just one of the many that can be found at the San Francisco Same-Sex Wedding Album.

5 posted on 02/26/2004 11:37:26 AM PST by Scenic Sounds (Sí, estamos libres sonreír otra vez - ahora y siempre.)
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To: Scenic Sounds
I would like to thank everyone that attended Dorothy and my engagement party last Saturday night. The gifts given to us are much appreciated.

Dorothy just loves the brine shrimp and subscription to Goldfish weekly and the crotchless orange scaled wet suit given me as a gag gift was pretty funny.

As everyone knows, Dorothy and I will be married at the NY Aquarium this September. We are still deciding on a honeymoon spot but it is looking more like we will stay local and gayly frolic in our newly constructed Koi pond in the back of our little love cottage, nestled in the suburbs of New Jersey.

Now, we both understand that the government frowns on Human/Goldfish marriages. However, with any hope, Mayor Bloomberg will see fit to provide us with a marriage license so that we can to tie the proverbial knot and be forever known as husband and fish.


6 posted on 02/26/2004 11:49:13 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (60 Senate seats changes the world!! Bury Kerry in 04!)
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To: Gritty
Homosexuals no more want to be married than the Man in the Moon. They despise themselves and what they are, and think that be forcing us to play along with their queer charade it will help ameliorate their guilt and shame. For that reason they're seeking to subvert and bring down every decent institution in human society.
7 posted on 02/26/2004 11:52:36 AM PST by Agnes Heep
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To: ptavares
Because his actions hurt no one, if the courts act one way the licenses are moot, if it acts another then he's ahead of the curve.

Imagine if the Mayor of Birmingham in 1955 said, “Jim Crow is wrong!” and desegregated the water fountains, the hospitals, the schools, and the buses. Would liberty loving conservatives embrace his actions or vilify him for his breaking the rule of law and his failure to support the institution of segregation?
8 posted on 02/26/2004 12:43:25 PM PST by DSHambone
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To: Gritty
Ultimately, this comes down to the notion of the rule of law. Without that, our Republic is finished but the Gaystapo won't let anything stop them as they march forward with their destructive agenda.

Ultimately, it will not be the new amendment that saves this nation but the 2nd.
9 posted on 02/26/2004 1:09:17 PM PST by FormerLib ("Homosexual marriage" is just another route to anarchy.)
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To: EdReform
"But what I really want is the 1049 federal rights that come with marriage."

How predictable! "I want...I want...I want!"

These pathetic people care for nothing besides themselves.

10 posted on 02/26/2004 1:11:05 PM PST by FormerLib ("Homosexual marriage" is just another route to anarchy.)
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To: DSHambone
Skin color has nothing to do with morality. Nice try, but it falls flat on its face.
11 posted on 02/26/2004 1:12:35 PM PST by FormerLib ("Homosexual marriage" is just another route to anarchy.)
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To: Agnes Heep
Homosexuals no more want to be married than the Man in the Moon. They despise themselves and what they are, and think that be forcing us to play along with their queer charade it will help ameliorate their guilt and shame. For that reason they're seeking to subvert and bring down every decent institution in human society.

BUMP!

12 posted on 02/26/2004 1:28:43 PM PST by spodefly (...)
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To: FormerLib
If your sexuality is hardwired then the analogy hold quite well.
13 posted on 02/26/2004 1:30:36 PM PST by DSHambone
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To: FormerLib
In 1955 Alabama you might have quite an argument - funny how the morality then and there for those in power is not the morality now.
14 posted on 02/26/2004 1:33:58 PM PST by DSHambone
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To: DSHambone
If your sexuality is hardwired then...

...then you are heterosexual. All other attractions stem from psychological/mental damage.

Utlimately, of course, all human behavior is chosen behavior except in the mentally ill, who we recognize as not being completely responsible for their own actions.

15 posted on 02/26/2004 1:38:20 PM PST by FormerLib ("Homosexual marriage" is just another route to anarchy.)
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To: *Homosexual Agenda; EdReform; scripter; GrandMoM; backhoe; Yehuda; Clint N. Suhks; saradippity; ...
Homosexual Agenda Ping.

Well thought out, reasoned article.
And it would look as though the majority of Americans agree - more people seem to be siding with traditional marriage.

If you want on/off this list, ping me.
16 posted on 02/26/2004 2:19:20 PM PST by little jeremiah (...men of intemperate minds can not be free. Their passions forge their fetters.)
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To: EQAndyBuzz
LOL!
17 posted on 02/26/2004 2:56:58 PM PST by livius
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To: Gritty
All of the time-honored assumptions of marriage -- bride and groom, husband and wife, mother and father -- must be rewritten to accommodate a tiny fraction of the population who wants to form alternative families. When I suggested in a recent exchange with gay civil rights advocate Evan Wolfson that marriage was about affirming the ideal that both mothers and fathers matter to children, he denounced the idea as an "offensive proposition."

So mothers and fathers are now an "Offensive proposition?

18 posted on 02/27/2004 8:11:23 AM PST by tuesday afternoon
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