{"id":7965,"date":"2006-12-16T03:48:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-16T10:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=7965"},"modified":"2006-12-16T03:48:00","modified_gmt":"2006-12-16T10:48:00","slug":"talking-back-to-mass-emails-from-political-magazines-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=7965","title":{"rendered":"Talking back to mass emails from political magazines, 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Received this email just moments ago from the New Republic’s<\/i> Franklin Foer:<\/p>\n

\n

Dear Reader,\n<\/p>\n

\nDick Cheney’s daughter is an open lesbian-and now she is pregnant. Her presence would seem to pose a problem for conservatives. How can they decry gay unions and then fail to decry Mary Cheney’s lifestyle? In this week’s cover story<\/a> Andrew Sullivan explores the conundrum represented by Mary Cheney and then dissects the conservative reaction to her pregnancy. He asks, is the conservative position on homosexuality sustainable? Subscribe today<\/a> for only $9.97 to read this article now. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nUh, no offense, Franklin, but I’m pretty sure I know Andrew’s answer, so I’m just going to save my ten bucks and respond instead to your email teaser.\n<\/p>\n

\nFirst, Dick Cheney’s having an openly-lesbian daughter didn’t seem to hurt the Bush reelection bid (though Kerry and Edwards—tireless champions of the Other—certainly tried to exploit that fact to hurt Cheney with conservatives).  In fact, that the Bush \/ Cheney ticket wound up with more votes than any other presidential duo in US history would seem to indicate that the problem Mary Cheney’s pregnancy would “seem to pose” for conservatives only applies to caricatures <\/i>of conservatives, who—let’s be honest, here—are the spectres Andrew Sullivan now spends the majority of his more lucid moments doing battle with.\n<\/p>\n

\nIf, as this teaser insists, Sullivan is truly interested in exploring whether the conservative position on homosexuality is sustainable—and to be generous, I’m going to assume we’re talking about the official Republican position on gay marriage, not some sweeping assumption about a singular “conservative” position on homosexuality per se<\/i>—then the answer is yes, of course it is sustainable.  Which doesn’t mean the sustainability is determined<\/i>, mind you.  Just that there are a host of reasons for taking a position against gay marriage that have nothing whatever to do with one’s stance toward homosexuality—which means that there are a host of objections to gay marriage that are impervious to the kinds of attacks on “Christianists” Sullivan favors.\n<\/p>\n

\nOr to put it another way, those who oppose gay marriage and who are not, in any sense, homophobes, have no problem sustaining their objections—even if an openly gay woman like Mary Cheney is pregnant.<\/i>\n<\/p>\n

\nFurther, when Foer asks (almost rhetorically), “how can [conservatives] decry gay unions and then fail to decry Mary Cheney’s lifestyle,” the question itself is terribly (and perhaps intentionally) misleading.  Because Foer and Sullivan must know that many conservatives don’t decry gay unions<\/i> unless those gay unions are classified as marriage<\/i>.  Hell, the majority of commenters here support <\/i>gay marriage (I don’t, but for semantic reasons I’ve written about on a number of occasions), and Sullivan himself would probably classify my site as a time share for budding neofascists.\n<\/p>\n

\nI support civil unions and have no reservations about providing same-sex couples with the same kinds of benefits afforded traditional married couples.  And if this is indeed what same-sex couples are agitating for, then there shouldn’t be a need to have their unions called “marriage”—save that they wish to expand the definition of marriage by force, and against established Western tradition.\n<\/p>\n

\nI can’t see a good reason why this is necessary.  Unless it is the goal of gay marriage proponents to force their <\/i>values on those who hold different values.  And just as I respect homosexual couples enough to argue for full benefits in civil unions, I likewise respect those who guard particularly cherished western traditions such as the long-established definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman, whether they do so out of a religious or a cultural impulses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Received this email just moments ago from the New Republic’s Franklin Foer: Dear Reader, Dick Cheney’s daughter is an open lesbian-and now she is pregnant. Her presence would seem to pose a problem for conservatives. How can they decry gay unions and then fail to decry Mary Cheney’s lifestyle? In this week’s cover story Andrew Sullivan explores the conundrum represented by Mary Cheney and then dissects the conservative reaction to<\/p>\n

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