IGF CultureWatch

Jonathan Rauch, IGF's co-managing editor, is described as a "radical incrementalist" in a Q&A over at reason.com, here. Excerpt:

I've come to have a lot of respect for institutions that have evolved in society over time.... I'm very anti-radical. It puts me in an odd position because I'm a big advocate of gay marriage, but I square that circle by saying the right way is to try it in a few states, to do it slowly. Remember, we're messing with an age-old institution. I'm very much in that square.

And more:

To me, the gay revolution-and it has been a revolution in the culture-is Exhibit A in what a good job the culture can do changing itself when people appeal to persuasion, to try to better their lives and change the world mostly from the bottom up because that's what happened there....

[A]t least in the long term, not always in the short term, the compassion and reasonableness of the American public never ceases to amaze me.

Just don't try telling that to Larry "Everybody Hates Us" Kramer!

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force blasts the U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding a federal law restricting partial-birth abortions. Surprise, I also think it was a bad ruling, but that's not because I support the right to "choose" to suck out your healthy baby's brain moments before his or her birth when the mother's life isn't at risk. There's a reason civilized society doesn't sanction infanticide.

So what's my beef with the ruling? I don't think it's a federal matter to regulate abortion, just as it shouldn't be a federal matter to regulate marriage. Similarly, I don't see where the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government power to set penalties for criminal acts (so I'm against federal murder statutes).

NGLTF supports partial-birth abortion, I don't. But I wish abortion advocates had left the battle for legal abortion (which I'd advocate states keep accessible at least through the first trimester) to be decided by state legislatures. And I wish partial-birth abortion opponents also had left the matter with the states. Which is where these decisions belong.

The Washington Post ran a nice piece on how SoulForce is taking its message-that there's nothing contradictory about being gay and Christian-to anti-gay fundamentalist colleges: An excerpt:

The riders filed out of the bus and stood in a line. Some held signs: "Open Dialogue" and "All at God's Table." They had all taken care to dress professionally, but "professional" is a relative term.... [Robin] Reynolds looked neat, but by Patrick Henry standards boy neat, in a pinstriped button-down shirt and slacks.

Reynolds made a brief statement calling herself a "child of God, a follower of Christ and a lesbian." Jarrett Lucas and Josh Polycarpe, both 21-year-old African American activists, walked past a "Private Property, No Trespassing" sign. They were politely arrested and driven away.

I've long felt that witnessing (and, when necessary, getting arrested for doing so) is far more effective than shouting (or, worse, shouting obscenities, or throwing communion wafers on the ground, or other not exactly useful tactics deployed by some gay activists in the past as they acted up against the spiritually benighted).

Another excerpt:

Soulforce visits often bring gay students and alumni out of hiding, and this was no exception. Three alumni contacted Reynolds during the visit; she said one told her he was gay and that his time at Patrick Henry had been the "hardest four years of his life."

David Hazard, a friend of [Patrick Henry College founder Michael] Farris who had edited one of his books, also told Reynolds he was gay. When Farris heard that during an interview in his office, his jaw fell open, and he stared for a long time. "Oh. I'm so sorry for David," he said. "I think he's deluded." The place for someone like that, he added, "is on their knees repenting of their sin.

"But here's a good reaction for you: I still like him."

Make of that what you will.

Now that Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., has introduced a bill in the House to equalize the tax treatment of health benefits for domestic partners, the HRC is singing its praises. But when Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., the measure's lead senate sponsor, tried to introduce it in that chamber as an amendment to the minimum wage bill, gay groups did the bidding of their party and were resolutely opposed (Log Cabin aside). Even now, notice that the HRC release makes no mention of Smith or any Republican supporters.

This bill is important because while the heterosexual spouse of any employee can get employer-provided health care without being taxed, a same-sex domestic partner (or spouse in Massachusetts) must pay full taxes on the value of the health benefit, typically amounting to over $1,500 in taxes annually just for average benefits. Too bad some LGBT advocates think partisanship is more important than passage.

Chris Crain looks at Out magazine's cover story on the gay celebrity glass closet. Writes Crain:

Clearly the celebrity treatment of homosexuality has trended along with society's acceptance of gay people. The days of Ellen (and even Rosie's) big coming out party already seem dated. The ho-hum reaction to T.R. Knight ("Grey's Anatomy"), Lance Bass (N Sync) and Neil Patrick Harris ("Doogie Howser, M.D.") isn't just due to their B-list status. As America cares less, so will celebrities.

And someday, both Jodie Foster and Anderson Cooper will ride that wave, and no doubt receive courage awards from gay rights groups when they finally do so.

While pampered U.S. celebrities worry about the career ramifications of being honest, in Saudi Arabia "sodomy" is punishable by death, as noted in the Atlantic's interesting report on gay life in the fundamentalist kingdom (where, yes, gay life does exist). Even there, "Vibrant communities of men who enjoy sex with other men can be found in cosmopolitan cities like Jeddah and Riyadh. They meet in schools, in cafes, in the streets, and on the Internet."

At The New Republic, IGF contributing author James Kirchick blogs in praise of IGF contributing author Richard Rosendall, who is working to shed light on the politically correct hypocrisy and mind-numbing ineptitude of blame-America-first international LGBT watchdog groups.

Don't miss IGF contributor Dale Carpenter's critique of David Blankenhorn, over at the indispensable Volokh.com. Says Dale:

Blankenhorn's book is unusually well-written. And intellectual guilt-by-association has an easy appeal that may make his argument that these bad things all "go together" an anti-gay marriage mantra in the future. Like [Stanley] Kurtz's superficially frightening correlations, now largely ignored on both sides of the debate, Blankenhorn's argument has to be carefully unpacked to show how unsatisfying it is.

Dale's unpacking is masterly. And Blankenhorn's book, which I just finished, is the best piece of work that the anti-gay-marriage side has yet produced, containing much to admire despite its flaws. If nothing else, the Dale-David exchange shows how far the gay-marriage debate has come since the hysteria of only a few years ago.

The New Hampshire House has approved a bill recognizing "spousal unions" for same-sex couples. If the measure becomes law, the Granite State would be the sixth to give gay couples state-recognized marital benefits and responsibilities, and the third to do so legislatively without a court decree forcing their hand.

IGF contributing author Dale Carpenter, blogging at The Volokh Conspiracy, ponders:

Some interesting questions to ask presidential candidates campaigning in New Hampshire and who've said they favor "civil unions," but not "marriage": Do you favor "spousal unions" for gay couples that give them all the rights and responsibilities of marriage but aren't called "marriages"?

And what if we take it the next step and called them "marital unions" but not "marriage"? This will test just what it is people think is at stake in the use of language to describe gay families.

Here's the AP on Where states stand on same-sex marriage.

Perhaps as important (some would argue more so) then the legislative advancement of government-recognized spousal relationships (and accompanying government-provided benefits) are changes in the cultural sphere. And one undeniable signpost that's now been passed is this one, as reported by Reuters: Disney opens 'fairytale weddings' to gay couples:

The Walt Disney Co. has changed its policy to allow same-sex couples to have "fairytale weddings" at its U.S. resorts. Disney previously allowed gay couples to organize their own weddings or commitment ceremonies at rented meeting rooms at the resorts, but had barred them from purchasing its fairytale wedding package and holding the event at locations at Disneyland and Walt Disney World that are set aside specifically for weddings....

The "lavish wedding" option also includes a ride to the ceremony in the Cinderella coach, costumed trumpeters heralding the couple's arrival, and attendance by Mickey and Minnie Mouse characters dressed in formal attire.

Disney has come under fire from religious conservatives, including the Southern Baptist Convention, who have accused the company of promoting a gay agenda.

Chalk up another victory for capitalism as a force that quite rightly rejects discrimination as a detriment to an expanding profit base! But it's no joke: the more that the major nongovernmental institutions of civil society recognize gay unions as equivalent to marriages, the harder it becomes, in the long-run, for government (which is, clearly, not swayed by the profit motive but is responsive to organized reactionary voting blocs) to maintain its discriminatory policies.

As reported in DC's The Examiner, Washington leads the nation in the percentage of adoptions by gay parents:

Nearly a third of adopted children in the District of Columbia live with gay or lesbian parents, according to a new study, for a higher percentage than any of the 50 states.... Of the District's 2,649 adopted youth, 758, or 28.6 percent, live in same-sex households, the study found....

The report, a combined effort of the D.C.-based Urban Institute and the Williams Institute UCLA School of Law, found gay and lesbian parents are raising 4 percent of all adopted children in the country. Roughly 100,000 foster children await adoption, the study reported, and 2 million members of the gay and lesbian population are interested in becoming adoptive parents.

Yet religious reactionaries and their political allies want to outlaw adoptions by same-sex couples and would especially like Congress to bar the practice in its semi-fiefdom, the nation's capital. That this would deprive hundreds of children of their parents is, to them, less important than upholding the hallowed ideal of hetero supremacy.

This April Fool's parody hits the nail on the head because you read and and think, if only. Would that the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest and richest lesbigay(&trans) lobby, had the sense to take such a logical step. But these partisan poobahs seem far less interested in advancing gay equality through broad political outreach then they are in being good party players, getting pats on the back from the liberal Democratic elite who rule their social circles. Alas, like the man who tried to walk using just his left leg, they've spent the last decade doing little more than spinning around in circles, moronically chirping "George W. Bush, You're Fired!" while dreaming of appointments as midlevel outreach apparachiks in the hoped-for Clinton restoration.

More. Andrew Sullivan isn't letting up his critique. Good for him.

And for those who wonder what a bipartisan approach to gay equality might look like, the Gill Action Fund here gives an indication. (There's more about them here.)