The recent marriage equality hearings made me think long and hard about what marriage is, what it’s intended for, how it works, and how I feel about it. I’m still thinking and researching; I haven’t come to too many conclusions yet, but I know it’s something I have to both keep an open mind about and come to a better understanding of.
Others apparently have not felt the need to indulge in this drawn-out process, but instead have viewed recent events and written, as Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone calls it, “some seriously crazy shit.”
He also calls it “one of the weirdest, most mean-spirited things I’ve ever seen in the New York Times.” And: “What an asshole!”
I share his reaction to David Brooks’ recent column on marriage equality.
Isaac, scanning the news while on the road, sent me the link to the Brooks column, “Freedom Loses One” (one what? Ball?), because he saw it as poly blog fodder right away. I read it and quickly fired back: “Yeah, that Rebecca (our single-mom-of-two-by-choice friend who recently had Isaac and Tobi over for Passover dinner), she’s no better than one of those greedy CEOs, the way she refuses marriage! And she has an ‘unsteady home’ too!” (She has a very yappy dog, mismatched cups, a toddler who plays with cardboard boxes, a good share of dust and cereal on the floor, oh, the list goes on and on.)
So how seriously crazy is this shit, anyway? Brooks’ column casts gays and lesbians as a bunch of hedonistic, permissive, jeans-wearing, grooving babies who just wanted to “follow their desires” — but who are finally, thank god, showing signs that they’re ready to grow up and settle down, by asking for marriage equality.