Obligatory gay marriage post, w/ pics

We are currently facing the greatest threat to our happiness and way of life in generations. Global economic disaster? What? No, I'm talking about gay marriage, of course.

That's what some people seem to think, anyway. Once again, the California Supreme Court is considering the issue, and as per usual, out came the sign-toters and yellers on both sides.

Here's the problem, the way I see it, and I'm certain I'm not the first person to make this observation: the problem here is that "marriage," in this country, is both a religious institution and a civil one, and the two institutions are hopelessly entangled. There's no separate civil marriage that you can get; civil unions just aren't the same thing, no matter what anyone says. So these people who believe that God hates gays or whatever hear "marriage," and they think marriage in their church, not the kind of marriage that involves intestate succession and taxes and so forth.

I don't think anything should be forced on any religion that its adherents don't want. If you want to speak in tongues or worship Baal or whatever it is you do, have at it. But by the same token, don't use your religion as a cudgel to tell everyone else what they can and can't do. And if two people who love each other want to make a lifelong commitment to one another, it's none of your fucking business, as long as no one's forcing you to perform the ceremony in your church. Until we disentangle religious "marriage" and civil "marriage," we're going to have to keep dealing with this shit.

Last night, I was listening to right-wing lunatic Brian Sussman on KSFO, and he took a momentary break from ranting about how Obama isn't a US citizen to start ranting about how gay marriage was going to destroy society. Then something interesting happened. A guy called in who described himself as a "conservative Republican," and said:

"I'm a fiscal conservative. This social stuff takes second place to me because right now, I mean, my company is struggling, and that's the number one - I could care less if two gay people want to get married. I want to feed my family."

Sussman got all huffy and told him that he should stand up for his family and society was going to be destroyed and blah, blah, blah, but I think the guy has a point.

Anyway, Frank Chu was in front of the court this morning, so that's some reassuring stability in an otherwise crazy world.