Nutty Supreme Court banterings on gay marriage rights:

Justice Samuel Alito:

Same-sex marriage is very new. It may turn out to be a good thing; it may turn out not to be a good thing.

NYTimes Columnist, Maureen Dowd, in response:

 If the standard is that marriage always has to be “a good thing,” would heterosexuals pass?

Charles Cooper, the lawyer arguing against marriage equality:

Marriage should be reserved for those who procreate.

Justice Elena Kagan in ironic response:

Should couples over the age of 55 be refused marriage licenses, then?

NYTimes Columnist, Maureen Dowd on the pro-creation status of Supreme Court Justices, et al:

• Sonia Sotomayor was married and didn’t have kids.

• Clarence and Ginny Thomas did not have kids.

• Chief Justice Roberts’ two kids are adopted.

• George and Martha Washington? They only procreated a country.

In light of this insanity one of my blog posts from a while back has suddenly resurged in popularity and so I am reposting it in homage to our unenlightened Supreme Court:

If Gays Can Marry Can I Marry My Dog?

When will people understand that tradition is just a stumbling block in the pursuit of progressive thinking? My dog and I are very much in love. She has been my friend, protector and lover for eight years. I firmly believe that we are both deserving of a legal domestic partnership, too. If the gay/lesbian community can be granted such a thing, then why can’t we? Heck, I’d be willing to bet that there would be less uproar over me kissing my dog on the front page.

This was an actual letter written by Joe Freeman and published in the San Jose Mercury News on May 21, 2008, on the cusp of gay marriage becoming legal in California, and amidst visions of husbands kissing husbands and wives kissing wives.

While some fear immanent bestiality, others worry that if gays can marry, next thing you know, adults will be marrying kids. It’s all the same, right?

At the very least, what about consent?

An adult man can give consent to marry another man. An adult woman can give consent to marry another woman. But children are too young to fully understand what they would be getting into by agreeing to marriage — if they were asked their opinion at all. Children cannot give consent. Neither can dogs or cats or birds or lizards or cows… Bestiality and child marriage are nothing like gay marriage. Funny that ol’ Joe couldn’t make the distinction.

Joe is also worried about going beyond tradition, or traditional morality that is based in religion. But after all the atrocities committed in the name of religion, whether the Crusades or 9/11 or cutting women’s genitals from their bodies (female genital mutilation), I don’t find religion to be the best guide to ethics.

So religious morality can seem hardly moral at all, and too often the opposite.

Better to base morality on whether someone is being harmed.

I can see how homophobia hurts people. Gay bashing harms victims. Homophobia inflicts emotional suffering, sometimes so severe that gays and lesbians take their lives. At the least self-worth can greatly suffer. But those who bash also lose their humanity.

When parents can’t marry, children may not be able to visit a sick parent in the hospital, they may lose out on social security or inheritance if a parent dies, they aren’t guaranteed child support if parents separate. These kids miss out on the support and stability that other kids take for granted.

On the other hand, I don’t see how gay marriage harms anyone. And no one seems to be able to figure that one out.

We would all be better off extending love instead of hate and contempt.

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