Same-sex-marriage videos and articles
Some videos worth watching:
- Gay Vermont teen gives testimony in favor of same-sex marriage in March, during the hearings before Vermont's Senate vote. He starts by handing the Senators a hundred letters from his classmates and teachers advocating for same-sex marriage--things have come a long way since I was in high school. He gives a five-minute statement, and then answers questions for another five minutes--I saw this in a different video without the questions part, so I haven't yet watched the second half yet.
- Gathering Storm is the fearmongering ad from the National Organization for Marriage that they've been playing nonstop in various parts of the country. "There's a storm gathering [...], and I am afraid." Despite the cheesiness, the distortions of fact, and the fact that it consists of hired actors pretending they've been hurt by same-sex marriage, I suspect that this ad is very compelling to its target audience: people who are uneasy about homosexuality and hesitant about same-sex marriage. The ad convincingly suggests that it's not the queers we're scared of; we would never be homophobic. No, it's the damage queers are doing to our churches, our doctors, and our society that's the problem. If it weren't for all that, we'd be fine with them getting married, as long as we didn't have to think about them. The ad's been getting a lot of dismissive liberal press, but I think ignoring it would be a mistake.
- The Colbert Report responded with a very funny "anti"-gay-marriage ad. Tagline: "There's a giant gay storm gathering, and before long the winds will be blowing each other."
- But even better, Love Not Lies provides an excellent and heartfelt response video. "We will weather the storm. We are a coalition of every age, color, faith, and religion, coming together in love." Made me cry. In fact, y'know what? I like this one so much I'm going to embed it in this entry:
Here are some prose pieces worth reading:
- A lovely entry in the blog A Practical Wedding on Honoring Marriage Equality In Your [opposite-sex] Wedding Ceremony.
- Frank Rich has a nicely upbeat op-ed piece in the New York Times suggesting that opposition to same-sex marriage is weakening. Good piece, makes me optimistic, though I'm not sure the optimism is warranted in the near term. But I remain convinced that--with continued outreach and work--we'll win in the long term.
- Despite poll results indicating a lack of correlation in CA, I'm still pretty convinced that knowing GLBT people makes a big difference in straight people's levels of acceptance. And I think it makes a big difference for people who are struggling with their own sexuality as well. Because "there are gay people in every small town and every big city across America and the world," there's a new site called I'm from Driftwood, featuring true stories of queer folks from all over.