2011-07-31

Recent developments in Gay Rights

In the past few months we have seen same sex marriage pass in New York and the ridiculous "Dont't Ask Don't Tell" policy being swept into the dustbin. These and similar changes have been too long in coming about. And I want to point how important they are for our society as whole including straight, white males like me. I find a positive social good in living in a diverse community of people with equal liberty and find that my friends do also. If the government grants certain privileges to some and denies those same privileges to others then that is a harm not just to those denied the privilege but also to me and I think also to the society as a whole. And if one privilege is given only to a few; in this case one man and one woman marriage; then I worry that it becomes easier to give more select privileges for a few or to deny the liberties of any minority. Fortunately some progress is being made on removing special privilege of marriage only for one man and one women in a few states but there are still more states where change is needed. I will not elaborate my views on marriage at this point; a brief summary is already online at http://alf.org/marriagemoulton.php.

What I want to emphasize is that we have seen recent gains however those groups like Family Research Council are still around advocating their own special brand of discrimination. We need to be vigilant against the forces of repression such as the Family Research Council.