In a rather stunning op-ed article in yesterday's New York Times, the chief witness for the 2010 federal court trial in support of Prop 8 has now come out in support of marriage equality. Founder of the Institute for American Values David Blankenhorn who the court ultimately found to lack "the qualifications to offer opinion testimony" has finally evolved.
But there are more good things under heaven than these beliefs. For me, the most important is the equal dignity of homosexual love. I don’t believe that opposite-sex and same-sex relationships are the same, but I do believe, with growing numbers of Americans, that the time for denigrating or stigmatizing same-sex relationships is over. Whatever one’s definition of marriage, legally recognizing gay and lesbian couples and their children is a victory for basic fairness.
Although he states in the article that he still believes that "at the level of first principles, gay marriage effaces that gift. No same-sex couple, married or not, can ever under any circumstances combine biological, social and legal parenthood into one bond", he now views the entire charade as coming from an "underlying anti-gay animus".
Well duh.
I had hoped that the gay marriage debate would be mostly about marriage’s relationship to parenthood. But it hasn’t been. Or perhaps it’s fairer to say that I and others have made that argument, and that we have largely failed to persuade. In the mind of today’s public, gay marriage is almost entirely about accepting lesbians and gay men as equal citizens. And to my deep regret, much of the opposition to gay marriage seems to stem, at least in part, from an underlying anti-gay animus. To me, a Southerner by birth whose formative moral experience was the civil rights movement, this fact is profoundly disturbing.
Even though Blankenhorn and I remain miles apart on the ideological spectrum, I applaud anyone who comes around to the reality that our constitution was designed to guarantee equality to all Americans. Coming to an understanding that one's opinion is just that, an opinion, should never interfere with the rights of others to hold their own opinion is a breath of fresh air coming from the right.
Of course this isn't sitting at all well with his former colleagues. The odious Maggie Gallagher was left scratching her bigoted head over these developments.
My friend and mentor and one-time boss David Blankenhorn has just published a New York Times op-ed in which he gives up on opposing gay marriage. I haven’t yet read it carefully enough to respond, except to say that 'the argument from despair' is the single most powerful argument gay-marriage advocates wield. I wish you well, old friend.
And Brian Brown is fit to be tied.
It is sad when a powerful and compelling voice goes silent—especially when the topic is one as important as marriage, and where the silence is not motivated by a change of view about the nature of marriage but rather a seeming succumbing to the continual pressure of the cultural elite. Yet retreating from the debate is not a path we or our followers will ever travel, for retreat will surely lead to defeat. We intend to fight on, and fight harder, for the truth—that marriage is the unique union of a man and a woman.
Soon very few of these bigots will be left fighting so desperately against the tide. Their days of influence are coming to a rapid end and I sincerely hope that the door doesn't hit them in their asses on the way out.
Tomorrow is San Francisco's Gay Pride Parade and I'll be there celebrating with my husband and my dear friends. With these good winds at our backs, it should be truly a great day of celebration. Happy Pride to all!