Society's message to gays? Frank Bruni nails it

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04/10/2012

by Jeremy Hooper

Preach:

"[T]he passage or defeat of marriage equality isn’t just about weddings. It’s about worth. It’s about the message a society delivers to men who love and pledge commitment to and maybe start families with other men, and to women who love and pledge commitment to and maybe start families with other women.

Voters in states with marriage equality on the ballot can tell us that we matter as much as anyone else. Or they can tell us that we don’t.

Many of us—most of us, I hope—figured out long ago how not to root our self-esteem in the soil of popular opinion. But not everyone succeeds in doing that. Some people respond to the climate around them. They flourish when it’s hospitable. And when it’s hostile, they fail to, often falling prey to self-destructive behavior, and on occasion even ending their lives early.

What sort of “values,” family or otherwise, abet or turn a blind eye to that?"

-New York Times columnist Frank Bruni