Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

More Marriage

It bears repeating, I suppose, that Eric and I (partnered for going on eight years now) disapprove of much of the human trafficking that has been historically denominated as "marriage," we disapprove of the false and facile ideology of possessive exclusivity and romantic "completion" that mobilizes so much marriage discourse, we disapprove of any politics that in fighting to secure marriage equality also functions to denigrate different ways of organizing loving and responsible and fulfilling relationships other than marriage, and we are not personally tempted in the least to become married ourselves. But you shouldn't for a single second think we are unaware that in refusing to grant us the right to refuse marriage a moralizing minority has commandeered the apparatus of the State in an effort at the ritual humiliation and dehumanization and denial of citizenship to fellow-citizens and peers and that this we will fight to the very end. And it is palpable here at the turning of the tide of anti-queer bigotry across the US that in the end we will indeed win the right to marry… whereupon we will cheerfully refuse to participate in the whole unappealing marital mess altogether.

1 comment:

jimf said...

> [A] moralizing minority has commandeered the apparatus
> of the State in an effort at the ritual humiliation and
> dehumanization and denial of citizenship to fellow-citizens
> and peers. . .

You know, it seems pretty obvious to me that one of the biggest
threats that (other people's) gay marriages pose to the
adherents of closed (and assiduously policed) belief systems
like, say, Mormonism, is the horror of having to explain to
the kids why something that **our** church says is right
up there with murder on the list of heinous crimes before God,
is not only (sadly) no longer illegal now, but would actually be
granted **privileges** under U.S. law. Having that too-obvious
disconnect with the "outside" world paraded so publicly weakens the
force of your own moral authorities (or, to apply the appropriate
discursive coordinate transform. "adds to the devil's arsenal of
temptations"). So naturally, they'll fight it with
all the PR their $80 billion net worth and their tithe
income can buy. Hey, that's politics! (Think of all
those suits with high-rise offices and staffs of secretaries
and IT departments sitting in their conference rooms
coordinating the defenses against the Attack of the Poofters.
Isn't it just thrilling, like a Dan Brown novel?)