There is a great line in the recent film Milk. The original quote-"this isn't an issue, it's our lives"--comes at a moment when Dan White is confronting Harvey Milk, giving him a backhanded compliment on his success. He's not successful because of skill or being right or anything else. He's successful because he has "an issue" to pursue, something that voters on board with. White does what far too many people do when it comes to the politics of gay life: they reduce our lives to a political issue.
This phenomenon has been quite pronounced with regard to the politics of marriage. After all, they say, wanting to "protect marriage" doesn't indicate any hostility to gay people. It's just a "personal opinion" on a "political issue." Sure, it's a political issue that determines how secure people's lives will be. And, yes, what marriage is being protected from is our presence. Some people are actually crazy enough to think that actively working to make our lives less secure and to keep us from "polluting" a valued social institution isn't the least bit anti-gay. They are delusional enough think they can value gay people while devaluing our lives. They can't.
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