Meanwhile the very few bright and reasonable people don’t have the influence that they would need to put forth their argument above the noise. By merely appearing to be respectful of marriage defenders, such people draw the scorn of the drum bangers.

The dispute is not really about marriage, anyway, but rather it is about the innoculation of the gay kind of identity politics.

Being accused of betraying one’s identity group can be far more persuasive than reasoned arguments. This is not something brand new and it is not something invented by the SSM campaign. But the din tends to drown out the voices of reason.

I’ve read In Re Marriage Cases twice, and all the harm they mention appears symbolic to me, rather than tangible. If you can show me substantial, serious, tangible harms from using the term “domestic partnership” instead of “marriage” I will stop my “protestations to the contrary.” The best way to change my mind is with evidence.

I didn’t make a friend cry. I made a lesbian I don’t know cry several years ago. A lesbian I do know said she’s no longer my friend last week. Believe it or not, I know more than one lesbian.

Timothy-

I did not mention Timothy’s position on California because I do not know it. It is possible he does not know it. If you have evidence Timothy approves of suing newspapers for refusing to recognize same-sex marriages as equal, I will be shocked, but I will make that clear on my blog.

Because there are no legal gay marriages in Tennessee, Chistopher would put pressure on newspapers through guilds.

But Gee, you’d never know that from reading the posting above.

I wonder if David Benkof ever feels remorse for mischaracterizing others’ views in order to make it seem that they agree with him. I wonder if it bothers him that he has to do so.

Marriage is binary–you either are or you aren’t married. You either let same-sex couples marry or you don’t. Compromises like civil unions and domestic partnership don’t cut it, especially when marriage is available in some places. Despite all of your protestations to the contrary, there is tangible harm associated with denying same-sex couples the actual term “marriage” (see the CA decision).

Equality is also binary–either you are equal or you are not. You cannot get around the fact that the vast majority of gay people frame this issue in these terms. And I’m quite certain that no amount of meetings will alter that framework. This is a winner-take-all choice. There are reasonable people on both sides of this issue. But some of those reasonable people will not get their way, no matter how reasonable they try to be.

Blessed are the peace makers. . .for such a devout Jew, again you are not making friends, playing nice, and your disrepectful attitude is truly awful.

you make think you are winning on the playground, but it won’t be long before you are just playing by yourself.