It’s Pride Week

Thanks to Benjamin Geiger for the image!

This is Toronto’s Pride Week (or Pride Fortnight, June 6 – 30?) Ah, it’s officially June 19 -28. The festivities will be “hotting up” as we approach the weekend blow-out, when part of Church Street is  closed to become a pedestrian mall and celebration space. There’s a Dyke Parade (Dyke Hike?) and a main parade, in which the Mayor and various Members of Parliament or Members of Provincial Parliament ride.

We’re also having a strike by city workers. The pools are closed and garbage collection is cancelled. But Pride Week is going on, aside from cancelling a flag raising — no one to operate the flagpole, I suppose. The organizers will pay up to $20,000 to have private firms collect their litter.

Events include a 5km run or walk, the Pride & Remembrance Run, which raises money for worthy, gay-friendly causes, such as the hospice Casey House. Of course, some people will be running in costume. The run is on Saturday the 27th at 10 a.m., with refreshments afterwards.

Last Saturday there was an inclusive shabbat service held by Shir Libenyu congregation. Remember when “inclusive” was LGBT? That stands for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transsexual.” Well, now it’s LBGTTIQQ for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual,Transgender,* Intersex, Queer, & Questioning.” Free childcare is available during services.

*Some people say, “Two-spirited.”

I expect that some of the many out-of-town visitors will use their trip as a chance to get legally married.

Gay marriage—why the opposition?

The blogger at Soob says:

Early last month my home state, Vermont, became the first state to legalize gay marriage via statute….

…never have I met a coherent argument against gay marriage that didn’t include either religious prejudice or blatantly subjective bias. No argument has ever convinced me that, on the whole, the recognition of gay marriage is an inherent danger to me, my fellow citizens (beyond their selective and imaginative discomfort) or my society. Now, a decade after legalized civil unions and a month after legalized gay marriage, I’ve yet to see even circumstantial evidence here in my state to support the cause of those in opposition, much less anything strictly empirical.

Song: Defenders of Marriage

Roy Zimmerman recommends this rendition of his song by his fans Joan Manners and Brett Bayne:

They take the mickey out of religion, the bible, culture, politics, etc. while explaining the absurdity of defenders against gay marriage.

Housewarming

On Saturday night, I picked up MsEditor and we went to a colleague’s housewarming party. Our friends moved into the neighbourhood almost a year ago. They’ve been making their house beautiful ever since — and it shows. The back yard was lovely and shady. There was a sushi chef with portable sushi bar set up on the back: “Dr. Sushi – we make house calls.”

Many happy and friendly people showed up and I think a good time was had by all.

More on gay families

Marriage creates an official family. Far from being only about procreation, it settles the legal status of the spouses and answers many questions about property, taxes, inheritance, and who gets to give permission for medical treatment. It is cruel to randomly take a percentage of the population and tell them, “You can never marry, ever, and your relationships can never be acknowledged or regularized. You will always have to sneak around. Some people will think you’re an abomination, no matter how nice you are or how much in love. Tough luck, kid.” And we wonder why gay teens commit suicide.

The fact is that a small percentage of mammals, in forming the complex behaviour of sexuality and mating, seem to prefer their own sex. It isn’t because gay lions are raised with a gay lifestyle by gay parents. Whatever it is, experience or brain wiring or hormones, it’s not unnatural or you wouldn’t find it in Nature. Unusual, yes. Counterproductive, perhaps: although young animals with two parents plus an “aunt” or “uncle” may survive better than those with two parents alone.

Finally, having their legal status settled doesn’t hurt me. Doesn’t hurt my marriage, any more than someone else choosing to be an auto mechanic hurts my choice of career. It’s just busybodying to think so.

Tags: marriage, same-sex marriage, families, equal rights, gay marriage

Gay marriage pro and con

Ed Brayton of Dispatches from the Culture Wars answers an “unanswerable” argument against gay marriage.

If procreation is all that important for marriage these days, with the earth’s population over six billion, then why do we allow marriages between infertile, invirile, or just plain old people? Shouldn’t they have to get the woman pregnant first to prove they can do it? Idjits.

Tags: marriage, same-sex marriage, families, equal rights, gay marriage