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03/19/2009
Uncivil: Randy counters civil rights with 'counterfeit' claims
Ya know, we just can't win with social conservatives. If our unions are recognized in civil law as marriages, then they say we are destroying all that is holy in the world. But even if we leave the word to the heteros and instead get an alternate system that shores up some of the civil benefits and protections that comes with full marriage, they still liken our relationships to cheaters, scoundrels, and thieves.
This from Randy Thomasson:
Counterfeits always harm society, whether it’s lying or cheating, or a teenager pretending he loves a girl just so she’ll give him sex, or the stealing that banks and other businesses endure, or the false documents that are commonplace in the black market.
I am greatly concerned how counterfeit marriages in California and other states will teach children that there’s nothing special about marriage and that homosexual relationships deserve the same honor as marriage, just with a different name. The opposite is true. No relationship deserves the same right or status of marriage between a man and a woman because sameness is utterly different from oneness
Marriage counterfeits in WA mimic California [Save California]
Well, we do agree with him that it's short-sighted to enact civil unions, domestic partnerships, or any alternate, less-than-equal system. But of course it's not because we see civil recognition of loving gay couples as a fraudulent element. No, no -- the fraud we see is in the idea that gays deserve only piecemeal, separate-and-unequal arrangements rather than total marital parity. And to us, the counterfeiter label more ably applies to the Randy Thomassons of the world who spin nasty tales in order to strip gays not only of the full marriage enchilada, but any and every deserved gay rights gain.
Randy may find it appropriate to invoke swindlers, snake-oil salesmen, bank robbers, and bogus documents in order to denounce gay partner recognition. However, we see it as both offensive and politically unwise for him to do so. Offensive, obviously, because we know all too well that gay couples are simply seeking to put this tired issue behind us so that we can all move on with our lives, free to enjoy the same civil treatment as everyone else. But also politically unwise, because we think that those who use code words, false ideas about gays' need to "change," support for marriage bans, and unfair verbal attacks to wage "culture war" against the LGBT community should probably be hesitant about reminding the populace that scams and scammers still populate this world of ours.
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