I thought it might be useful to write a link-filled post with articles to give some background on the current discourse in the U.S., especially surrounding the issue of LGBT marriage equality.
In my previous post, I mentioned DOMA. The Justice Department is defending the act against suits questioning its constitutionality, but President Obama has issued a statement that the defense is on legal grounds only, and the administration believes the law is discriminatory and should be overturned. I need to research the status of these lawsuits further. I do know that California's Proposition 8 was upheld by the CA Supreme Court. The federal suits that were filed stated that the law made a fundamental change in the state constitution, which would mean that it needed to be approved by the legislature before taking effect.
While this is going on in the courts, the law is also being addressed federally in the legislature. House Democrats proposed, in September, a law they've called the "Respect for Marriage Act" that repeals DOMA.
On the state level, this month the Maine law legalizing same-sex marriage was overturned in a statewide election. The campaigns to overturn these state laws are often run or at least supported by religious organizations. Today in D.C., the Catholic Church threatened to discontinue social programs because of a proposed same-sex marriage law.
It's interesting to consider how the very institution of marriage brings up questions of the relationship between church and state. I think it will be good to spend some time examining more closely the civil vs. religious ideas of what marriage is/should be, and the legal vs. spiritual aspects involved. I wonder in what ways these two sides are fundamentally opposed, and what ground they share, if any. I suspect the relationship is fairly complicated. Like a marriage.
Here's an interesting article that just frames the whole issue in a different way.
Meanwhile, here are some more videos that have been circulating lately from the pro-marriage equality side. (I will admit that I have not yet started to delve very deeply into the arguments of the other side, but do plan to do that. I want to hear what the logic is, even though I personally am very staunchly in favor of marriage equality. I truly am interested--and I think my collaborators are, as well--in making this a wide-ranging discussion so we can hear as many different perspectives as possible on the topic and try to make sense of our differences).
Finally, in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Sesame Street this week, here's Grover and his friend Jesse discussing the very question we're asking:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment