Marriage Schmarriage

Dan Savage weighs in with some cogent insights about Dina Matos McGreevey's "standing by her man" presence at NJ Gov. McGreevey's recent coming out/resignation.



Savage's main point may be why the Republicans have been curiously reticent about tubthumping about the McGreevey mess as much as we would have expected them to:

If it does nothing else, the McGreevey marriage highlights the chief absurdity of the anti-gay-marriage argument: Gay men can, in point of fact, get married -- provided we marry women, duped or otherwise. The porousness of the sacred institution is remarkable: Gay people are a threat to marriage, but gay people are encouraged to marry -- indeed, we have married, under duress, for centuries, and the religious right would like us to continue to do so today -- as long as our marriages are a sham. As long as we're willing to lie to ourselves, our wives, our communities, our children, and for someone like McGreevey, our constituents. A closeted gay man like McGreevey can even marry twice and have both his marriages regarded as legitimate. Even as an openly gay man, McGreevey can remain married to his wife and smoke all the pole he likes on the side. There ain't no law agin' it, Sen. Santorum. But how does this state of affairs protect marriage from the homos, I wonder? If an openly gay man can get married as long as his marriage makes a mockery of what is the defining characteristic of modern marriage -- romantic love -- or if he marries simply because he despairs of finding a same-sex partner, what harm could possibly be done by opening marriage to the gay men who don't want to make a mockery of marriage or who can find a same-sex partner?

Thanks, Dan, for continuing to point out the complete illogic, never mind the obvious hypocrisy, of the right's stand on gay marriage. If Republicans want to start worrying about people cheapening marriage, they can start with Britney Spears; move on to Las Vegas wedding chapels; take a side trip to The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and similar "find true love for a million bucks" reality TV shows; bitchslap Newt Gingrich, and then finish off with those damned Eharmony.com ads that are STILL running relentlessly on Air America radio, even after Dr. Greg Cynamoun and Corti-Slim have been mercifully banished to BBC America at 2 AM.