Okay, I promise to end this image posting phase I’m going through, but I was again struck by a powerful photograph – this time a positive one.
The caption for this photo was,
Del Martin, 87, center left, and Phyllis Lyon, 84, center right, are married by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom , center, in a special ceremony at City Hall in San Francisco, Monday, June 16, 2008.
I can only hope that images like these help to shatter the awful, ignorant bigotry gay marriage faces. It lifts your heart to see some progress made while, at the same time, breaking it – how long have these two women not been afforded the rights and dignity they surely deserve?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
When I saw that picture yesterday, all I could think was how gay marriage will destroy the sanctity of life time commitments, too. After all, these two women have only been together since 1952. How can we trust them with a lifetime bond?
adam & eve. that remains sanctified. what is sanctified about what man says is sanctified? is man holy that he can sanctify anything? marriage covenant remains GOD, MAN & WOMAN.
It’s perfectly acceptable for you to have whatever religious beliefs you like, and if that means your church only allows marriage between a man and a woman, nothing should change that. To impose your religious beliefs on a civil arrangement, leading to unequal treatment under the law?
I think not.
terra firma,
If gay marriage pisses off your “GOD” so much, why doesn’t it just speak up during the ceremony and object? It is supposed to be omnipresent, isn’t it? Oh, but it’s supposed to be omnipotent, too, and still the gays are marrying. Maybe you should just pray for everything you want and leave the action to the big people.
-Your friendly (but surly) neighborhood AnonyMoose
terra firma: Pogie made the important point–these are civil ceremonies, not religious ceremonies taking place in anyone’s place of worship.
I haven’t heard anybody talking about forcing churches (or synagog’s or mosques, etc) to marry same sex couples: those institutions are still free to marry only heterosexual couples if they wish to do so. They can even continue ‘joining in holy wedlock’ all those CEO’s and their 3rd and 4th trophy wives ‘as long as they both shall live’. Whatever.
My hubby & I have been married nearly 40 years, and –strange as it might sound to you–we don’t feel at all threatened by gay marriage.
(Actually, when you go to the root of marriage, it’s mostly about establishing paternity for the inheritance of property, but that’s another discussion.)
Nobody “sanctified” our marriage but my wife and I. No witch doctor, shaman, gaia worshipping hemp smoking dreadlockian, no priest, no pastor, no book, creed or scripture, no mythological being or supernatural force.
Only the pledge between us. That sanctifies our marriage, for the last 22 years.
I’m all for “family values”, and between any couple who will make a similar commitment between them. The pictured couple surely qualifies.
{ 1 trackback }