Tag: gay

Some happy politics news: same-sex marriage and election integrity

There’s some surprisingly good news after the objectively-not-great-but-subjectively-much-better-than-expected midterm elections!

  1. The Respect for Marriage Act passed, meaning that the federal government and states have to recognize same-sex marriages, although it doesn’t mean that states have to allow same-sex marriages to happen in their state. This issue picked up steam after Roe v Wade was overturned and Clarence Thomas suggested the Supreme Court may want to “reconsider” Obergefell v Hodges. That such a bill passed with some Republican votes (although far fewer than Democrat votes!) is another indication of how far we’ve come.
  2. In the omnibus spending bill that will be signed by Biden momentarily, there are a bunch of provisions to reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887. Basically every provision is to address how Trump was trying to steal the election in 2020 – clarifying that the Vice President’s role is merely ceremonial, raising the threshold to nullify electors, and some state-level stuff too. This really gives me hope for the fairness of future elections!

on same-sex marriages and wedding cakes

So this week the Supreme Court sort of ruled in favor of the Colorado baker who didn’t want to make a cake for a same-sex wedding case. The case has to be heard again, and was a narrow ruling despite the 7-2 vote, or if you prefer in meme form:

But I wanted to talk about the case in general. I can understand feeling put-upon having to do creative work for something you don’t support. I think I’m kind of OK in this specific case with letting the guy not bake the cake, especially since in this day and age the number of people that would refuse to do so would be hopefully few, even in more conservative areas. (I think?)

The problem is that this is a pretty slippery slope. I’m not a huge fan in general of slippery-slope arguments, but what about:

  • A wedding photographer who doesn’t want to take pictures at a same-sex wedding
  • A cake baker who doesn’t approve of interracial couples and doesn’t want to bake a cake for them
  • A wedding DJ who doesn’t want to play music for an African-American couple
  • A pediatrician who doesn’t believe same-sex couples should have children and doesn’t want to treat them
  • A hotel clerk who doesn’t approve of same-sex couples sharing a room
  • A grocery checkout clerk who believes condoms are immoral and doesn’t want to ring them up

That hotel clerk one is not really a hypothetical – African-Americans had to deal with this sort of thing up until the 1960s, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbade that kind of racial discrimination.

For me personally, I generally feel like people should do their jobs, and providing a service to someone isn’t an endorsement of their life. If we have some sort of exemption for people producing a creative work for an actual wedding ceremony, I would probably be OK with that as long as it was extremely narrowly tailored.

same-sex marriage and religion

After the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage last week, some people have gone a bit crazy. Ted Cruz says the rulings on Obamacare and marriage were “some of the darkest 24 hours in our nation’s history”, which is…definitely saying something!

I got into a discussion on Facebook (I know, I know…) which quickly became unhinged about whether this means churches will be forced to marry same-sex couples or go to jail or something. (for the record: NO, obviously, since this isn’t true today! A Jewish couple can’t get married in a Catholic church, etc, etc, etc)

So all that had me feeling rather down on religion this week. And then: the Episcopal church voted to allow same-sex weddings! (although bishops and clergy can opt out)

This really meant a lot to me, since when David and I were planning our ceremony 6 years ago, we wanted to have it at our Episcopal church but were told (very nicely, of course!) that the Church didn’t allow it. So hooray!

2 quick thoughts about same-sex marriage

0) It was an utter joy updating the map. I still can’t believe it happened! Nate Silver points out that change doesn’t usually come this fast.

1) Somewhere around 10% of the population is gay (maybe 20%), but regardless of the number you pick, it’s well less than the 60% of Americans that support same-sex marriage. We have a ton of straight allies who get no benefit from supporting us, but we wouldn’t have made much progress without them. Thank you!

2) Elections matter. 2 of the 5 Supreme Court votes today were from justices appointed by Obama. If Obama hadn’t gotten elected in 2008, I would probably not be writing this post tonight. Even today, none of the myriad of candidates running for the Republican nomination have come out in support of the ruling, and in fact none of them support same-sex marriage. Not a one!

Elections matter.