unrepentant old hippie

In honour of Pride Week

This is Jon Stewart's discussion with ultraconservative Bill Bennett on the subject of gay marriage. It's such a joke that this continues to be such a big deal for conservatives. I've always thought that the inclusion of any marginalized group into the mainstream can only be good for society as a whole. And although I wouldn't get married for a million bucks, I've always had the option. I can totally understand why gay people want the societal validation of their relationships that the ability to marry provides. I'm old enough to remember when common-law hetero relationships weren't considered marriages. I know this isn't a perfect analogy because the marriage option at least was available to us, and gay couples have challenges that straight common law couples never faced. But I can certainly relate to the frustration of not being considered your partner's next of kin, not being able to claim them for income tax purposes, not being able to have them covered by your insurance. And people saying things like "Oh, they're not really married, they just live together". I can't imagine anyone saying something like that today -- hopefully in 20 years we'll be in that same place with gay marriage, where we find it hard to remember a time when it wasn't accepted.