The breaking news: Dateline San Francisco – A divided three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals this morning declared California's same-sex marriage ban, Prop. 8, unconstitutional but agreed to give sponsors of the bitterly contested, voter-approved law time to appeal the ruling before ordering the state to resume allowing gay couples to wed. By 2 to 1, they said a lower court judge correctly interpreted the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedents when he declared in 2010 that Prop.8, a response to an earlier state court decision that legalized gay marriage, was a violation of the civil rights of gays and lesbians.
My response, after noting the ruling makes a farce of the civil rights movement: Several months ago a bank where I transact some business hired a collegial young man as a teller. From the first day, he has been uncommonly friendly. It is his nature as much as being gay is.
Yesterday morning after the normal generic but genuine patter while I was making a deposit, he raised his right hand, vertically in a flat position, and warmly said “Bye.”
At that instant, he seemed amazingly vulnerable. Only a dead man could have avoided feeling empathetic.
Unspoken, he was pleading something like “please don’t be mad at me for the way I am.”
Very Separate Views
My mind hurtled back a couple of Sundays to a rare breakfast table debate with my oldest son about the merits and demerits of gay marriage. The subject was pertinent because my two younger sons are gay.
Matt, as easygoing as I am passionate, powerfully disagreed with the Logic of my stance.
In my customary bashful, aw-shucks manner, I explained my opposition to gay marriage is based on grounds it is immoral, un-natural, and societal mores have outlawed it essentially since the start of civilization for those and other reasons.
It is not complicated.
This is the part that most baffled and bothered Matt: I told him I not only would accept but embrace gay marriage if his brothers wanted that, but that otherwise I was sternly against gay marriage.
Inconsistent and unfair, Matt protested.
Matt and I reluctantly agreed to travel separate paths on this topic.
Perhaps
Walking away from the bank yesterday morning, I began thinking the young man at the bank might make an ideal boyfriend for either of my younger sons.
