Not this again...

I'm about to get political on you all for the first time ever (I live in DC, so allow me this one indulgence. I'll be back to Supergroup, So You Think You Can Dance, and The Devil Wears Prada soon enough). Today the NY courts ruled that any real ruling on gay marriage would have to go through the legislature. Whoopee. A setback for gay rights for sure, but not a death knell by any means.

Anyway, this led me to check out the comments on Fark about this ruling. You can read the same enormously long thread here. I even posted in the comments...I'll repost it below for your reading pleasure:

I'll never understand the argument that gay marriage denigrates straight marriage...you need a certificate issued by the state to be legally wed (partnered up, unioned...whatever you want to call it). If you CHOOSE to then go to a church and get "married in the eyes of god," then fine. Why can they just change "Marriage license" to "Certificate of Union" for EVERYONE...then let the gays get "married" in whatever church is cool with it, let the straights get "married" in whatever church they feel like celebrating, and then everyone is happy. The Union certificate is the legally binding document, the "marriage" is the traditional, religion-related ceremony. The close-minded straights get to go to their gay-unfriendly churches to get married, and the open-minded straights and gays can support the churches that accept everyone. Why is this so freaking hard?

Anyway, posting on Fark is usually just yelling into the dark...no one responds to me because A) I'm not very extreme in my views and B) I'm not a troll. Today however, I was amazed to get this email shortly after posting:

Hi-
You don't know me, but you're a genius.

My name is Andrew. I don't post on Fark but I often read the political/religious threads because I enjoy the resulting flamewars and the associated ignorance that comes with them.

You're the only person on Fark that realizes that secular marriage and religious marriage are two separate things. Nobody else seems to realize that and I was wondering when someone that posts there would
mention that.

Religious and civil marriages are completely different, yet have been conflated in Western society. It's completely possible to marry in a Church and have it official in the eyes of God, but not the civil state. Likewise, it's completely possible to marry in a judge's office and have it official in the eyes of the state but not of a religion.

However, since the two have been conflated, right-wing nutjobs have done a good job in pushing their religion's interpretation of a proper marriage onto the civil state, thus keeping gay people from marrying
in most places. Like I said above, I read Fark threads for the entertaining flamewars because people say really stupid things, and I find that funny. However, I was happy (and surprised) to see some intelligence there).

Have a nice day.

Best, Andrew

Well...color me surprised! My lowly opinion vindicated. And I'm a genius for it! (Did you get that part, friends?) Anyway, this guy wrote back to joke a little about the trolls and self-proclaimed experts on Fark and to ask "Was your insight just a momentary act of brilliance or do you have experience in a related field of thought or academia that lent to it?" This is what I wrote back. I think this (combined with my above statement) accurately and concisely sums up my views on gay marriage. And to think, I'm not even an expert or academic of any kind!

Ha - I know what you mean about ignoring trolls and self-styled "experts." As for my background, about the only info I bring to the table on this is a whole passel of gay friends. I live in Dupont Circle (similar to the Castro in San Fran for it's percentage of gay residents) so I've discussed this issue many, many times with many, many people. I guess I've just always seen "marriage" as a religiously-charged word that indictes a religious union, not necessarily a legal one.

Along the same lines, I hate the argument that being gay is a choice (vs. being biological or "natural") and that that somehow factors into why gay marriage should be illegal. No one is forcing all the biologically, naturally straight people to get married either...that too is a choice.

Seriously...what kind of morons are falling for this obvious political smokescreen? Is it not abundantly clear that we've got more pressing issues than whether two gay people are allowed to file a joint tax return and collect survivor's benefits for one another? Jeesh. Somewhere along the way, we Americans have completely lost the ability to prioritize.