Sleep Spent

“Other critics will warn of moral chaos. But moral chaos is what marriage prevents. If you want family values, the simplest thing to do is to let people form families.” (article)

I’m really looking forward to the time, not too far in the future now, where the world will collectively look back on this whole gay marriage issue and think, “what were they thinking?” Not to completely equate the two movements, but I believe it will be rather simliar to the disgust and disbelief we now feel when looking at something like the suffragettes. No one would now say that women shouldn’t be voting. And yet, historically, it was a very recent development (only about 80 years ago).

I ran across this article on Slate that tries to apply lessons learned by the abortion movement to this new issue. This same point was raised in a Speech Communications class I took from a feminist last year. In the beginning, the pro-abortion movement was unable to convince the American public because the public found (and still largly finds) abortion repugnant. However, the abortion rights folks realized that what they needed to do was sell America on the choice — something that is very much a part of our political and social tradition. These days, no one ever says they’re pro-abortion. People say they’re pro-choice.

The gay marriage issue will be won using a similar tactic. Take the homosexuality out of it, and who can argue with two people who love each other getting married? What politician is really going to come out and say that they are against marriage?