"In this week's ruling against same-sex marriage in New York, judges on the Court of Appeals -- those voting with the majority and those voting against it -- went out of their way to compare the gay marriage movement with the struggle for civil rights by black Americans." NY Times
This is a vexing problem for many, I know, but my perception of the issue is that gays, suffering from long-standing discrimination, are reacting, sometimes too, too much, to conservative America's distaste of gay marriage.
Gays, you're becoming as hardheaded as Israel is vis a vis the Palestinians in your strident demands. Just because you're a minority doesn't give you the moral high ground in every argument. The pitfalls are there.
Here's the most cogent sentence describing the position of gay marriage should have, given that while America is moving into a permanent war footing in decidedly fascist ways, to stop the whole engine of democracy to appease a tiny minority's lifestyle wishes, is silly:
"While the majority 4-2 decision acknowledged that gays and lesbians had suffered from discrimination, it did not see the civil rights challenges they faced, including efforts to win the right to marry, as having the same moral urgency as racial discrimination."
No moral urgency. Whatever discrimination gays suffer, their survival is not threatened by this issue. Yes, surviviors benefits and priveledges of ownership and tax breaks are valid issues, but these are no more serious than those of many other Americans. Health care, education, corruption. In this life, shit happens. Life isn't fair.
Let's stand back, see the big picture, and then work for the really important stuff.