I can't believe how much national press is devoted to a young California woman who lacks the political savvy to provide a nuanced answer to a question about the desirability of same-sex marriage. The pageant handlers were as flat-footed as she was. There were a million different ways she could have dodged the question without invoking her personal religious beliefs. She even could have said that her personal religious views are not appropriately discussed at such an event and that voters in individual states come to different conclusions on the issue. The federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is, in my opinion, a statute that will one day be overturned by a rational Supreme Court relying mostly on centuries of precedent that a marriage performed in one state gets all of the same legal protection if the couple moves to any other state. Leave this woman alone. The last thing we need is another Joe the Plumber who evinces no understanding of any simple issue, let alone about a complex one.
The good news: the debate over whether to permit same-sex marriage is light years ahead of where I thought we would be in 2009. Sure, there a people with political agendas and people who spew hateful commentary about LGBT rights but most young people couldn't care less if a few million same-sex couples enter into a civil marriage.
If we give Miss USA runners-up a platform on this issue, where does it end? Will we have to give the fifth runner up 15 minutes on the Today Show to talk about where TARP money is properly spent or whether a functioning missile shield will forever destabilize diplomatic relations with Russia and China? Miss USA does not represent anyone. She won a contest that I believe comes along with some scholarship money and a free apartment in NYC for a year.
If we really want to have an intelligent conversation about the issue, ordinary citizens who don't enter contests are just as qualified to weigh in. More and more people are changing their minds because they see same-sex couples living the same (often boring) lives that they themselves lead. I congratulate Vermonters because I agree with what they did at the ballot box. Because I am convinced that DOMA will be overturned eventually, the only beauty pageant I care about involves selecting Supreme Court justices that expansively read the Constitution.
2 comments:
This issue ranks right up there with Obama's preference for dijon mustard on his cheeseburger. Let's ignore the real problems and issues facing the country and instead focus on the ridiculous and frivolous. All this is to disrupt serious discussion of critical issues and to distract the populace from the day-to-day events that have true impact on their lives.
I just heard about the issue du jour involving dijon mustard. I guess I must be an independent at heart because I keep dijon and yellow mustard around. Don't tell anyone, but sometimes I even mix them together! Let's not get started on whether good chili is supposed to have beans or only meat in it. That could split the nation apart in ways only experienced during the Civil War.
And so it goes in the land of the free.
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