# Is it just me, or does this anti-gay marriage article seem particularly... \*mean\*? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 20, 2003, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394 "2003-11-20T23:42:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394/21 "2003-11-21T14:50:54Z")
My local paper (the _Atlanta Journal-Constitution_, which sadly is the only major daily paper in this large city) runs Maggie Gallagher’s column once or twice a week, and in my experience she’s consistently smug, self-righteous, bigoted and (it seems to me) willfully ignorant. So this particular column is no surprise. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394/22 "2003-11-21T14:53:26Z")
**gobear** , I know it was a rhetorical question, but: Because many, many more people vote who are likely to want no-fault divorces, quickie Vegas weddings, and to watch shite like “Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire.” It’s not so much the crumbling institution of marriage he’s concerned with as the potential crumbling institution of Ehrlich voters… And that, writ large, is the state of the union on gay marriage. As long as politicians can make political hay by denouncing it, they will. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394/23 "2003-11-21T15:01:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Homebrew \* > \*\*Because it took that long for someone to be brave enough to challenge it in court. \*\* And because public attitudes about homosexuality have changed enough that, having been brave enough to bring the case to a court, the plantiff could win it. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394/24 "2003-11-21T16:59:47Z")
> [@](#): > > And because public attitudes about homosexuality have changed enough that, having been brave enough to bring the case to a court, the plantiff could win it Which is unbelievably cool. As far as we have to go with gay rights, it is obvious that this is one battle we are winning - perhaps slower than is ideal - and that scares the shit out of some people. ---
**Author:** ![Priam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/77aa72/32.png) [@Priam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Priam)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394/25 "2003-11-21T17:20:57Z")
I found it even more amusing when Robert (I think?) Knight was spokesperson for Concerned _Women_ for America. I mean, are they all behind transgender rights _that_ much? And he’d make an uuuugly woman. As for the article in the OP, Derbyshire and Gallagher have both written much much worse than that. Andrew Sullivan actually updates choice quotes from Derbyshire articles just for sheer giggles. They’re so off the wall that they’re practically doing the rumba on the ceiling. That doesn’t mean my fists don’t itch as I read them. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394/26 "2003-11-21T20:00:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jayjay \* > \*\* > It’s not so much the crumbling institution of marriage he’s concerned with as the potential crumbling institution of Ehrlich voters… > \*\* Close. Maryland has a black population of around 25%, that, in virtually all elections, is solidly Democratic. This is, most likely, a way for Ehrlich to win a higher percentage of the black vote, as well as that of the conservative Dems of East Baltimore, Anne Arundel, and the Eastern Shore. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394/27 "2003-11-21T20:04:33Z")
Eh. Scratch a politician, find a politician. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394/28 "2003-11-21T20:13:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*Will someone explain to me how people who wish to bind themselves closer to each other with legal and financial entanglement are weakening marriage? \*\* A friend told me of hearing James Ellroy interviewed after _LA Confidential_ appeared on the silver screen. “Are you all right,” the interviewer asked, “with what they did to your novel?” Ellroy looked baffled, and hesitantly pointed to his bookshelf. “They didn’t do anything to my novel,” he said. “My novel is right there, where it’s always been.” I am reminded of this story whenever some yahoo complains about how gay marriage will hurt marriage everywhere. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2003, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394/29 "2003-11-22T02:47:48Z")
I didn’t find anything particularly mean-spirited about the article linked in the OP. In fact, I found it to be logical and well-argued, given the spate of recently published studies which concusively and finally prove that children raised without both a male and female parent are destined for lives of criminalit and unhappiness. And the other recently published studies which demonstrate that children who are raised by “normal” marriages always end up happy, well-adjusted, patriotic apple-pie-eaters. Oh yes, and those other recently published studies which, once and for all, expose the big lie that there are some gay couples who choose not to have children. I mean, the article was missing the links to those studies, but surely they exist, right? ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394/30 "2003-11-22T16:59:27Z")
Jon Stewart pointed out the other night how several of the major sponsors of DOMA – including one of its coauthors – had been divorced, some of them more than once. This isn’t about defending marriage; it’s about defending Standard American Christian Morals. What the religious right doesn’t get is that this is (by Constitutional pronouncement and fundamental founding principle) an improper pursuit of government. Unfortunately, I think the religious right is willing to destroy those principles to get what it wants. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394/31 "2003-11-23T06:43:41Z")
It must be that if gay marriage is allowed, all of these fundies will divorces their spouses and rush into a same sex marriage, right? They must be scared of something. Where I used to live, there was a heterosexual woman next door who was on her third husband, and a lesbian couple across the street who had been together for fifteen years. Now who was better at marriage again? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_of\_Sandwhich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/91b2a8/32.png) [@Earl\_of\_Sandwhich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_of_Sandwhich)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394/32 "2003-11-23T07:08:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Raygun99 \* > \*\*I thought Ann Coulter was Ann Coulter with a penis. \*\* One Huey Freeman seems to agree with you, **Raygun99**. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2003, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394/33 "2003-11-24T13:49:04Z")
> [@](#): > > “The problem is caused by those who overturn society’s norms to validate their own lifestyle.” ~David Schultheis, Republican State Rep for Colorado. You know, I just love the unintentional irony of this one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-this-anti-gay-marriage-article-seem-particularly-mean/214394.md?page=1)