And then sometimes I read things…

I was on the phone with a friend tonight. He is very much the dedicated Republican and Trump supporter. Me, I’m more of a cynic in a lot of ways. The conversation we had covered a whole range of topics and then he talked about something I hadn’t heard anything at all about. He said that it was likely to be rolled back given the numbers on the court. Maybe you haven’t heard about this but it’s breaking news:

Supreme Court formally asked to overturn landmark same-sex marriage ruling

Ten years after the Supreme Court extended marriage rights to same-sex couples nationwide, the justices this fall will consider for the first time whether to take up a case that explicitly asks them to overturn that decision.

Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for six days in 2015 after refusing to issue marriage licenses to a gay couple on religious grounds, is appealing a $100,000 jury verdict for emotional damages plus $260,000 for attorneys fees.

In a petition for writ of certiorari filed last month, Davis argues First Amendment protection for free exercise of religion immunizes her from personal liability for the denial of marriage licenses.

More fundamentally, she claims the high court’s decision in Obergefell v Hodges—extending marriage rights for same-sex couples under the 14th Amendment’s due process protections—was “egregiously wrong.”

WOW! So, this is a bit weird because I’m a bit conflicted on this whole thing.

On the one hand, I always think of marriage as something to do with church or religion. In as far as that goes the writings are pretty clear on the topic. It’s a sin, so in that regard I guess I’m against gay marriage?

Now, before you dismiss listen to the rest of what I have to say…

I commit sin. I mean, I’m a lapsed Catholic and I pretty much commit sin on a daily basis. Not only do I commit sin, I COMMIT MORTAL SIN!!! Something that is just plain WRONG! As a matter of fact I do quite a lot of sinning when you get right down to it. What I look at the things that are written in the bible, I am one BIG FUCKING SINNER!

Perhaps one of the reasons I haven’t set foot in a church all that often over the years is that I don’t want to make the targeting for the lightning bolt with my name on it any easier for the big guy.

At least though the good thing about my religion is that I can ask for forgiveness and I can be forgiven. Doesn’t make me any less of a sinner, doesn’t make the things I do any less wrong but there’s that option. So, in that regard I can’t cut slack to anyone else that I won’t cut myself on, some things are just wrong according to religion.

That being said… I have been blessed to have many wonderful people come into my orbit through the years and in the field I am in more than a few have been gay. Honestly? Who cares? I mean as long as someone is nice to me and doesn’t impose themselves on me why would I give a crap about their own life choices (except when it comes to trying and pretend organized religion is different than it is).

None of this makes them bad people. They deserve to be just as happy or as miserable as the rest of us. When it comes to marriage, I always thought people going crazy about gay marriage would be gung ho right up until they lost half their stuff in gay divorce. I have absolutely no problem with government recognized civil unions affording the same rights to people who chose to share their lives with one and other.

So, I guess I’m for gay marriage?

Weird, being both for and against something.

Seeing someone say they are going to challenge what is on the books threatening the rights of all these people doesn’t sit right with me. At the same time, again with that for and against thing, someone being forced to do something that contradicts their moral beliefs doesn’t seem right either so the question here is can we not find some kind of workaround? I mean in the instance of what happened with this woman, couldn’t someone else just have spelled her?

Anyway another quick search comes up with the factoid that 70% of the people in the country support gay marriage. I would think most of us embrace the phrase that springs from Lex mercatoria of Live and Let Live.

Now, how did we get here?

Well, maybe we got here because things went so far over the top that this is now the snapback. When I say too far, you either know what I’m talking about or don’t but there is this interesting piece that may put it into better context and it is worth a read.

In 2024, the Republican Party removed opposition to marriage equality from its platform, and the current Republican Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, is a married gay man with two children. Gay marriage is backed by around 70 percent of Americans, and discrimination against gay men, lesbians and transgender people is opposed by 80 percent. As civil rights victories go, it doesn’t get more decisive or comprehensive than this.

But a funny thing happened in the wake of these triumphs. Far from celebrating victory, defending the gains, staying vigilant, but winding down as a movement that had achieved its core objectives — including the end of H.I.V. in the United States as an unstoppable plague — gay and lesbian rights groups did the opposite. Swayed by the broader liberal shift to the “social justice” left, they radicalized.

In 2023, the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay, lesbian and transgender civil rights group in the country, declared a “state of emergency” for gay men, lesbians and transgender people — the first time in the organization’s existence. It had not declared a state of emergency when gay men were jailed for having sex in private, when the AIDS epidemic killed hundreds of thousands of gay men or when we faced a possible constitutional amendment banning marriage equality in 2004. In fact, we found out, this “emergency” was almost entirely in response to new state bills proposing restrictions on medical treatment for minors with gender dysphoria; bathroom and locker room bans; and transgender issues in school curricula and sports.