A FORUM FOR COMMUNITY ISSUES : MEGA-SCENE : Gays Just Can’t Win With the Religious Right

The official line taken by the religious right used to be that gays, especially gay men, were promiscuous sado-masochistic child molesters, but now their fervid obsession with gays is to stop them from forming stable relationships. Since marriage is the sine qua non of family, the fact that many gays want their domestic partnerships recognized as legal marriages should make the religious right rejoice. After all, marriage promotes such traditional values as stability, commitment, trust and sexual fidelity. Moreover, AIDS and its staggering economic costs have so drastically affected our society that there are now even more compelling reasons for legal recognition of gay marriage. But no, gays cannot win with fundamentalists and the GOP faithful. In their view, gays are bad per se and any attempt to establish stable unions by gays must be viewed with the same contempt society has for pedophiles.

From a column by Marshal Alan Philips. Mega-Scene is published bimonthly in Palm Springs.