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Gay Rights and the 2008 Election
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  Underneath the radar of this historic vote, where the nation chose its first black President, were half a dozen ballot measures banning either gay marriage or same-sex adoption. We’ll talk with a panel of gay and lesbian activists about the state of gay rights in America, look at how and why their side suffered setbacks despite a huge turnout among Democrats, and where their movement goes from here. Guests
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I continue to be in disbelief that we are still talking about gay rights. All people should have equal rights and that should be that. We have so many real issues that need to be addressed and yet we still have americans that wish to spend their time keeping other americans from having equal rights. Disgusting. Our environment is on the verge of mass extinction and our economy is on the verge of major depression. Is this a fundametal flaw of our species; That we consume our time in worry and fear of things that are benign while we neglect addressing the serious and scary issues of our day?
The late Yale history prof, John Boswell, wrote a book about ten years ago, "Same Sex Unions in Pre-modern Europe", which argued that gay marriage took place in Europe before the Reformation. Subsequent scholarship revealed that it was chaste friendship that was sanctified, not sexually involved marriage. The problem as I see it is contraception, which has transformed marriage and heterosexual unions effectively into homosexual sex- both are by design and intention, non-reproductive. Gays and lesbians are, under the circumstances, just demanding the same rights now accorded to heterosexuals. The key, then, is for the Supreme Court to restore the status-quo-ante with regard to contraception; that is, contraception must be again be made illegal, though such laws have to be loosely enforced, as was the case in the past.
I'm a lesbian clergy person, married in MA in 2004, now in Maine, raising an 11 year old with my partner. Laura talked about us, the gay and lesbian community losing in these four situations. While it is certainly true that we lose valuable equal rights in these 4 ballot measures, in Arkansas, it is not the GLBTQ community that suffers alone, but also all of the children in the foster care system who will not have permanent loving families because no unmarried couples will be permitted to adopt of be foster parents there. In an environment where there are not nearly enough foster homes, this is surely most unjust to the children.