Steve, Steve, Steve... homophobia is not defined as a viewpoint at variance with yours... this whole issue has been extensively debated in England, Green Papers, White Papers, Bills and Readings in both Houses of Parliament - the fact is that our marriage laws do not discriminate against a person on grounds of his or her sexuality. It's the same in France and Germany. To suggest that virtually the whole of Europe and indeed the world is homophobic for rejecting half-baked arguments put forward for same-sex matrimony is a perfectly ludicrous position on the issue.
#551438 - 02/13/1102:10 PMRe: Old link results...
[Re: keymaker]
steveg
Making a new reply.
Registered: 04/19/02
Posts: 27495
Loc: D'OHio
km, km, km... obviously you don't see it. But your diversions and smoke screens don't work. I daresay everyone here has your number. Wave bye-bye, Sir Dourballs, because the world has left the station without you. Deliberately.
Stepping away from haikus for a minute while our persnickety friend across the pond cooks up a fresh rejoinder... we've been watching a lot of HBO stuff lately. First we ripped through all of The Wire and now we're slightly better than half-way through Rome.
Both series are astonishing, period. At the end of the first season of Rome we checked out the special features material and one of the pieces focussed on Roman society and culture in that era. It was noted that the events depicted (with dramatic license, naturally) are in keeping with a set of cultural mores that are pre-Judeo-Christian. Meaning that the people prayed to multiple gods and that while many sects flourished and commingled with varying degrees of ease, just as they do in our own times, relations between the sexes and gender identity itself was far more fluid in that era. No one raised an eye if the same sex happened to turn your particular crank, or if you were bi. There weren't same set of strictures and taboos imposed on people's behaviour in that regard. It was more taken for granted, or so the people behind the series postulate.
Not to sugarcoat things and say it wasn't a barbaric time. But it's been interesting nonetheless to consider how different societies in various historical eras tended to deal with the very same all-too-human issues which entangle us.... deliberations on what is natural, what is proper, what is permissible but not to be encouraged, etc.
Over the course of the next several decades I expect the role of gender will continue to be deconstructed as we move, along with technology, into an era when we will be able to ever more easily change our appearance, extend our lives, alter our bodies radically for whatever reason we wish to invent. Seeing as it's the full slate of medical tech we're also talking about, that means birthing technologies and strategies will be changing up. Meaning challenges to old school notions of marriage will only continue to flourish. And yet despite all of that, most men and women will continue to be attracted to the opposite sex and will continue to make babies the usual way. The sky will not fall due to a failure to achieve a consensus definition of "marriage" which satisfies all parties.