Gay "Subversives." A perfectly ridiculous piece by anti-gay writer Stanley Kurtz titled Gay Priests and Gay Marriage, at nationalreview.com, blames the Catholic Church's sex-abuse scandals on, well, us. Announcing ominously that "the greatest lesson of this scandal has yet to be drawn," Kurtz declares the uproar over priestly sexual abuse "offers spectacular confirmation of nearly every warning ever issued by the opponents of gay marriage." It seems that in battling for the right to wed, gays are managing to "subvert the monogamous ethos of traditional marriage." Yes, it's our "subversive subculture" at work, just as allowing gays to serve in the priesthood resulted in weakening the moral fiber of Holy Mother Church.
IGF's own Jonathan Rauch and Andrew Sullivan bear their share of
them blame for this tragic situation, it seems. For as Kurtz
explains:
"Although both Sullivan and Rauch have honorably and ably defended same-sex marriage as the best way to "domesticate" sexually promiscuous gays, the priesthood scandal is powerful proof that just about every one of their fundamental assumptions is mistaken."
As Kurtz spells it out, just as gay priests (which he simply equates with pedophile priests) undermined clerical celibacy in the worst possible way, so will allowing gays to marry subvert and destroy marital fidelity.
I believe strongly in engaging the anti-gay right (and the illiberal gay left) in open and forthright debate, so I generally don't favor a dismissive response to arguments against gay equality. But honestly, could anyone read Kurtz and be persuaded by his fatuous and circular reasoning? If this is what's passing as vanguard thought by our opponents, then without doubt they"re in pretty serious trouble.
A New World? Congressman Bob Barr (R-Ga.) was the lead sponsor of the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars the federal government from recognizing gay unions (and which, after obtaining Bill Clinton's support, was signed into law by gay Democrats" favorite president). Now, Barr has done something surprising. He has come out against a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. According to a report in the Washington Blade, Barr said during an appearance on MS-NBC that the proposed amendment would infringe on the right of states to decide whether to allow same-sex couples legal recognition, and that states should have the right to legalize gay marriage if they choose to do so through the legislative process. This isn't exactly repudiating the Defense of Marriage Act (which didn't ban states from passing gay marriage, just federal recognition of those unions), but it is still a marked departure for the old anti-gay warrior.
What gives? It seems Barr, finding himself in a tough primary fight against another, more temperate incumbent GOP congressman, in a redrawn suburban Atlanta district, is moving to the center. Whatever the reason, if Bob Barr can reinvent himself as a relative moderate on gay issues, than, once again, the times they are a"changing.