The Washington State Senate finally did the right thing; the gay marriage bill passed the state Senate by a vote of 28-21. The fight is now on as religious bigots across the country have vowed to fight this bill with a referendum. While the Senate has passed the bill, it still has to clear the house before the governor can sign it into law, which she has promised to do as soon as the bill reaches her desk.
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While I agree, very much, that it is the right thing to do...in general I have not been a big fan of the same-sex marriage movement. There are so many issues facing the queer community, and marriage only fixes a few small problems for mostly privileged members of the community. They have taken the "we're just like you!" approach, and it is working. In the long term, I worry (1) married gays will consider discrimination "cured" and there goes all the money that has been going to LGBT organizations; (2) By using the assimilationist rhetoric, we have done more damage than good, keeping outsiders still on the outside. We could do more by asking our culture to expand our definition of "family" than squashing out lives into the prefabricated "family" box. It's a great topic for a deviance class--is it better to keep the narrow definition of "normal" when you can help some of the people now? Or do you fight to change the definition of "normal" even if it is going to take a lot longer?
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