Gay Rites

When you come to live in San Francisco, leave your judgments at the door. Acceptance and tolerance are the watchwords of Bay Area society. In fact, I belong to the only group--straight male Republicans--upon whom it is still acceptable to heap scorn and derision. I’m not doctrinaire about my stances: I do pull the other lever once in a while.

And in politics I occasionally vote for the Democratic candidate. (Chastened by the difficulty of composing a joke, I head back to the dugout, bat drooping, grateful that I don’t write for a living.)

Having lived in the Bay Area for several decades, I have long been comfortable with the gay lifestyle. No more perceptive words were spoken than by Mrs. Campbell: "so long as they don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses." They are applicable to any behavior that doesn't harm anybody.

Where I stand on the issue of gay marriage:

If a referendum were held on this matter, I would probably vote for the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples (depending on how it was worded).

I hold to my religion’s teaching that homosexual acts are sinful, but most sins are not illegal in our society, else all of us would be in jail.

Because people have deeply-held beliefs, pro and con (maybe even within the same person!), and people on one side or the other tend to cluster by geography, gay marriage should be left to the states to decide. We should try to prevent repeating the never-ending battle over abortion that resulted when the Supreme Court imposed a uniform standard across the country.

I don’t like touching the Constitution, which should only be amended when there are strong majorities in favor of a measure, but someone please tell me how one prevents an activist judge from forcing, say, Alabama, to recognize a same-sex marriage performed in California if the people of Alabama do not want to do so.

Even Andrew Sullivan, long an advocate for gay marriage, recognizes that a constitutional amendment, albeit not the one currently before Congress, may be needed to avoid a court-imposed resolution to this issue. I remain hopeful that our political leaders can overcome the demagogues and craft a solution that will not further polarize our nation. © 2004 Stephen Yuen