WhackyNation

It could have been expected. In the balmy, wacky state of California, and especially in the judiciary, where common sense seldom prevails, the state’s Supreme Court has just made another colossal boner in declaring same-sex marriages are valid, placing California next to Massachusetts in the zany column.

And the California court did it by a bare majority, 4 to 3. That means it will left to an uprising by the sensible people of the state, as well as its legislature, to undo the court’s terrible decision. The question remains: Will the people now persuade their representatives in the legislature to kill the same-sex-marriage law?

Lost in the confusion and tirades against the Supreme Court is the simple, logical, and non-abrasive proposal to put the same-sex-marriage argument to rest for all time. It is a proposal I have been making, along with many other sensible observers, to solve the national debate on the issue.

My proposal should satisfy both sides and retire the issue to the ashcan forever. Under the proposal, this preliminary statement should be made and accepted by both sides, including the Religious Right: No matter what laws are passed or not passed on the issue, gays and lesbians will go on living with their partners, as the law permits in every state.

It has been ever thus in the history and it will continue to be so, regardless of the high-powered opposition of certain religious groups. The Lord made certain people gay, and no matter how long and loud the anti-homosexual fringe complains, they will live their entire lives that way.

Some of the religious organizations keep telling us that gays don’t have to remain that way and that what they call “simple treatment” will reverse their sexual orientation and permit them to lead what are called normal lives. However, the “reversal” argument has never been proven to be valid, despite a very few examples offered to prove the “simple treatment.”

To proceed with my proposal, then, it should be a simple thing for all 50 legislatures and Congress to adopt a plan already accepted and proved worthy in many states. That plan is to substitute “partnerships” for same-sex couples. In the states that have acted, the term, “civil union,” has been used, and it accomplishes the same thing as partnerships.

The term, “marriage,” would be reserved for the usual man-and-woman arrangement. Each state could then decide which privileges and programs would apply to both marriages and partnerships. It is a solution that is so simple and sensible that I don’t understand why anyone should object to it.

As an adjunct to the partnership proposal, I would heartily endorse the compilation of a book detailing the names and accomplishments of a great many homosexuals in history, who have contributed so much to all segments of society — whether it be in the sciences, history, medicine, all the arts, and in so many other categories.

Why don’t our political leaders at the federal, state, and local levels show some courage and embrace the “partnership” idea? Isn’t that why we elected them?

Stop this silly dispute on the issue of gays and lesbians, a dispute that threatens to split the nation and leave us divided on much more important issues. It’s time we started applying a huge portion of common sense to the problem and put it on the shelf forever!

Even President Bush needs a lecture on the issue. He keeps insisting we must have a constitutional amendment that declares marriage can be only between a man and a woman. Urging him on is the powerful evangelistic force that refuses to concede that there may be two sides to the issue. Sitting on the sideline and apparently refusing to take a stand is the long arm of Science, which could solve the problem quickly and banish the issue as a burr in the American saddle. Many — and probably most — scientists acknowledge that homosexuality is an accident of nature. Relatively few say it can be “cured.”

Hidebound religionists have been pummeling gays and lesbians because they say there are programs that could reverse homosexuality and make men and women what they regard as “normal” human beings. What is a normal human being? I have known and worked with both homosexual men and women and, with very few exceptions, found them to be extremely talented and good workers.

While serving with the Army in the Second World War, I worked alongside several men who didn’t try to hide their homosexuality but who proved to be top-grade soldiers. Never once did they make a pass at me or any other G.I.s. One could tell by their mannerisms that they were gay, but that was as far as it went.

Similarly, when the Women’s Army Corps was created in the Second World War, scores of the women soldiers joined our unit, and I’d say at least a dozen of them were lesbians. Nevertheless, we never had a problem with them; they did their jobs well, and they behaved properly at all times.

Common sense urges us to look at the issue without malice and with an honest look at the history of the human race. Consider the thousands of homosexuals who have contributed their valuable resources to society. What would the music repertoire be, for example, without the beautiful works of Tchaikovsky, an acknowledged homosexual?

And what great treasures in history would have been denied us if it weren’t for other noted homosexuals — such as Alexander the Great, Hans Christian Andersen, Julius Caesar, Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, W. Somerset Maugham, Michelangelo, Sir Isaac Newton, and thousands upon thousands of others?

For years, I have suggested that gays and lesbians should be denied the ordinary ritual of marriage — but be permitted to live together under a legal arrangement called a “partnership.” They’re going to live together anyway, so why not accept the fact of biology and the “accident” of homosexuality? Washington and a few other states have recognized that philosophy and passed laws accordingly.

It should be removed as a national issue. Each state should then make its own arrangements and pass appropriate laws to accept the common-sense status of partnerships. Then, let’s be done with the nonsensical, ongoing “civil war” over same-sex relationships. Mother Nature decided it should be that way from the dawn of time. Why can’t the rest of us accept her wise dictum?

I think it is supremely important for all of us in this usually tolerant society to keep our cool on explosive issues, one of which is homosexuality. But Homophobia Awareness Week? The gay sponsors of a recent conference at the University of Washington in Seattle said gays have been discriminated against, primarily because of the AIDS issue.

They also said gays had been singled out and beaten and denied the rights granted to them — and to the rest of us — by the Constitution and our laws. In addition, they said gays have been the object of job discrimination and that they have been ostracized socially.

Now, I believe their charges were, and still are, justified, and that all of us must show understanding and be charitable toward those who have no control over the vicissitudes of Mother Nature and biology. But invest time and energy in a Homophobia Awareness Week?

From their publicity releases and other pronouncements over the years, I got the impression that the gays are saying that anyone who disagrees with them or criticizes their way of life is unfair or prejudiced. I can’t accept that assumption, and I believe that attitude will hurt, not help, the gays’ cause.

Through biological events not even science as yet understands, the homosexual has been plagued by the advent of AIDS. It’s a tremendously serious problem all of us must face — and solve without rancor and with plenty of understanding and sympathy, no matter how impatient some critical humans may be on the issue.

However, that understanding will not come about with the usual parades the gay community has mounted from time to time, nor with picket signs, cross-dressing on the city streets, and other bizarre behavior. Nor will it come about with conferences bearing the title, Homophobia Awareness Week, whose underlying tenet seems to be that the gay lifestyle is right and the rest of us are wrong.

I think the gay cause would be enhanced with a little more cooperation and humility — and with a lot less exhibitionism and defiance. First of all, I would hope that responsible gays would take the issue off the streets and away from parades. Reason, not exhibitionism, will do more for the gay community than silly parades.

I would like to suggest, for example, that, within the realm of serious reason and earnest conversation, the gay community should make its appeal for understanding and sympathy by pointing out that history is replete with the names and deeds of a great many artists, composers, literary geniuses, and, yes, even political leaders who were gay. Many of them kept their personal habits secret, as I believe they should have. But even those who didn’t should be applauded for their contributions to society.

In another forthcoming commentary, I will detail those contributions by many of the best-known names in world history.

Despite a large debt of more than $100,000 that remains to be paid to the city of Seattle for past parades, the city’s gay community is determined to continue its annual “Gay Pride Parade” in 2007.   The gays’ sponsoring organization, Seattle Out and Proud, has been staging the parades each year since 1975. 

However, some members of the group remained skeptical recently and tried to persuade the organization’s board to cancel this year’s parade, along with the gay festival that accompanies it each year in Seattle.  They also suggested that Out and Proud file for bankruptcy and dissolve the group.   

Disregarding the skepticism, the board decided it would go ahead with this year’s parade and festival and hope that the debt could be erased somehow in the coming months.  The board pointed to what some observers have said is the “great popularity of the parade with residents.” 

I don’t know how the gay board is going to pay off its debts to the city this year and in the future.  But I have to dispute the belief that the parade is very popular in Seattle.  Frankly, I hope the gay community will reconsider its past and prepare a wholly different future, not only in Seattle but in cities across the nation. 

I’ve seen several of the parades from time to time, and I have been appalled by the displays of gays taking part in them, their gaudy dress, and their embarrassing demeanor.  I know, too, that many homosexuals in the community, both male and female, dislike the parades and festivals and are embarrassed by their outlandish displays. 

A gay who has been a longtime friend is specially mortified by the annual festivities and, with a deep frown, said to me one day:  “I’m not a freak, and these parades and festivals make all gays and lesbians appear to be freaks.”  He is a successful businessman and readily acknowledges he is gay. 

I feel extremely sorry for him and the many other reticent homosexuals who disdain awkward exhibitions like those seen in the annual gay parades and festivals.  In fact, I have known a great many gays, particularly in the arts and entertainment field I covered for years as a critic, and most are extremely talented individuals and fine citizens. 

I believe homosexuals are the victims of biological mishaps and that they cannot be blamed for the fact that they are born gay.  Some theological extremists insist that gays could be “cured,” if they wished.  But I don’t buy that.  Most biological scientists agree that homosexuals are accidents of nature and cannot reverse their gayness. 

Also, I don’t agree with gays who demand they be given the right to a same-sex marriage in every state of the union.  However, I do believe — and I have said so in many commentaries — that all states should approve the right of same-sex couples to join in a “partnership.”  Whether the anti-gay forces like it or not, same-sex couples are going to live together and even adopt children.  And, being partners, they should have most of the  same rights and privileges states extend to man-woman marriages.  To deny them that partnership is cruel and inhumane. 

Having said all that, I still believe gay parades and festivals should be abolished and that all gays and lesbians should shun the exhibitionism that goes with them.  I have said in the past, and I repeat it now:  “Everybody should go back into the closet, because their traits and habits are nobody else’s business.”

So the Dems okay domestic partnerships for same sex and couples over the age of 62 but not young and middle-aged straight couples.  This happened a few days ago when the House passed Senate Bill 5336.

Mainstream Republican insiders say the homosexual community brokered a bill before session that would garner Mainstream Republican support.  The deal was to draft a bill to create domestic partnerships for everybody — straight and homosexual couples of all ages.  Everybody would be considered equal.

But when the Dems dropped the bill in the senate straight couples under the age of 62 were excluded.

Why? Apparently the D’s sensed a political opportunity.  Giving the elderly a special status based on their age would make them to more likely be loyal to the D candidates.  And allowing domestic partnerships for young same-sex couples but not young heterosexual couples would make the gay community feel they were be rewarded with a special stautus and thus more inclined to vote Democrat.  They figured you younger straight couples would never know you’d been screwed and that you would accept it out of political correctness to the gay and elderly communities.  Well, you know now.

So all of you young, straight people out their living in non-married households: the Democrats screwed you for political purposes.  Should your loved one go to the hospital you won’t be able to make decisions if they can’t.  Should they die you can’t make funeral arrangements.   Common property may not pass to you as you think might be just.

The Democrats did this to you.  And they did it on purpose.  Bend over.  This is the way the Democrat political machine works.