News coverage in this area this week focused on a remarkable development. Subject to appeal, the state of South Carolina's ban on marriage equality was overturned as unconstitutional. The judge that issued the ruling also issued a temporary stay on the effective date of the change to allow for appeals that are coming. But, if no further stays are issued, effective 11/20, marriage equality will finally come to a state reluctant to enter the 20th Century. (Yes, I know that is one back!)
The state attorney argued today that the state would suffer irreparable injury if a stay was not granted ...
My understanding is that he said it with a straight face.
More below the fleur de kos!
There is an idea in conservative circles that it is possible to harm MARRIAGE. Well, it isn’t. Marriage isn’t a sentient being. It has no feelings, it has no agenda, it has no sensibilities. If marriage did require protection, surely it would be from those who marry for money, who marry for political advantage, who marry for sex, who marry for status. But marriage does not care about those things, either. Similarly, states cannot be HARMED by marriage. States are not sentient, either. States have no feelings or sensibilities, either.
Those who claim marriage will be harmed can’t say HOW marriage would be harmed. Marriage equality is already the law of the land in most states. In South Carolina’s case, even North Carolina accepts the validity of marriage equality. Marriage equality already EXISTS. You can ask any married party: Is your marriage different? If they say yes, they have an agenda, and not an honest one. The answer is no. I don’t respect anyone’s marriage any less because gays may marry. No one else does, either. If people respect their OWN marriages less, it is because they choose to, not because ‘others’ may now marry. The problem is theirs, not society’s.
Let’s take a hypothetical scenario. A married heterosexual bigot lives with his wife on the border of North Carolina, along the mountains. His closest neighbors live in North Carolina. They are two fine citizens, hard-working, honest, proud of their loving marriage. They are also both male. Yet, the marriage of the the bigot is harmed ONLY if someone in, say, Charleston, South Carolina marries her or his same-sex partner?!
For them, marriage is not just sentient, it is bolstered not by geography, but by bigoted artifacts based on STATE LINES.
Of course, only an idiot could believe that.
In real terms, this fight is over. Marriage equality is here, and it will be here a 1000 years from now, too. The only reason to persist in it, Mr. Wilson, is to appease bigots located within the state lines. To gratify them through the politics of spite.
Gil Bagnell wrote a terrific diary in late October (still recommendable!) about South Carolina’s failing legal efforts (and over hypocrisy!). fcvaguy, in the comment threads, identified the underlying cause of the bigoted stalling tactics: spite.
That it is. Spite, and perhaps the hope that some of those prevented from marrying their beloveds during this time of appeals will die before final resolution that even SC bigots cannot circumvent.
Here’s to the failure of spite! You’re only making your eventual loss that much more humiliating, and you’re wasting millions of dollars in the meantime.
Thanks for reading tonight!
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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