Should We Defend or Respect Marriage?This month, the Senate...
Should We Defend or Respect Marriage?
This month, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10 to 8 to pass the "Respect for Marriage Act" (RFA). This law would repeal the "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA), which is, of course, discriminatory. In fact, it is the very definition of discriminatory. If you say one thing is better than another thing, that's discrimination. DOMA says heterosexual marriage is better than all other kinds of marriage. This is "defending" marriage, according to the marketing behind the name. The correct name should be DOCKMA (rhymes with dogma), the Discrimination of Certain Kinds of Marriage Act.
From the Senate Judiciary, the RFA would go to the full Senate, where it would be filibustered by regressive-thinking Republicans. Even if somehow it managed to get out of the Senate, it would most likely fail in the House, which will be dominated by still more regressive-thinking Republicans up till the election of 2012, when a lot of them will be going away.
Mark my words.
It doesn't really matter, though, since society itself and the ordinary people who make it up have already moved passed this debate and have come down on the side of "respecting" marriage rather than "defending" it. Politicians, you see, don't represent the people, but the special interests and money that got them elected.
Public acceptance of same-sex marriage has grown at an accelerated pace, with approval jumping by nine percentage points in the past two years alone. This year, for the first time in Gallup's tracking of the issue, a majority of Americans (53%) believe same-sex marriage should be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages. Among young people, support is far and wide, with 70% of people 18-34 supporting same-sex marriage.
It is clear that while the suits sit around debating the definition of marriage with their respective special interests breathing down their necks, the rest of us have already decided and moved forward.
What's there to debate? we wonder.
It's not likely the RFA will go any further, at least not until after the coming election that reduces the number of regressives in Congress, but, as I said, it doesn't really matter. The Obama administration has stopped defending DOMA in court, which basically means it isn't even enforced.
Backward laws still on the books are nothing new in this country. Oral sex, for example, is still illegal in 17 states, but is not enforced. Can you imagine if it were, though? Man, that would really suck.
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