BEING AGAINST GAY MARRIAGE DOESN'T MAKE YOU A MONSTER
ONE REASON THE IDEA OF GAY marriage, or "marriage equality," spread so fast is that it seems obvious once you think about it. It was a genuinely new idea when it first appeared in this publication in 1989. As was not the case with civil rights for African Americans, feminism, or for that matter gay rights themselves, there was no long history of opposition to be overcome. The challenge was simply getting people to think about it a bit.
Not everyone was immediately persuaded. In March, Ben Carson appeared on Fox News' "Hannity" show to talk about gay marriage. Carson is the latest Great Black Hope for the Republican Party, which is quickly running out of African American conservatives to make famous. But Carson's appearance was not a success. He should have left bestiality out of it. And any reference to NAMBLA- the "North American Man/Boy Love Association"-is pretty good evidence that we have left the realm of rational discussion and entered radio talk-show territory. This alleged organization exists -- if indeed it exists at all -- for the sole purpose of being attacked by Republicans and conservatives on talk radio and television.
Well, we all get our kicks in different ways, and if yours is watching someone being verbally flogged by Sean Hannity, I'm cool with that. Unwisely, though, Carson went on Andrea Mitchell's MSNBC show three days later. There, he tried to clarify his position. He said: "If you ask me for an apple, and I give you an orange, you would say, 'That's not
an orange.' And then I say, 'That's a banana.' And that's not an apple, either. Or there's a peach, that's not an apple, either. But it doesn't mean that I'm equating the banana and the orange and the peach."
Carson may qualify as a homophobe by today's standards. But then they don't make homophobes like they used to. Carson denies hating gay people, while your classic homophobe revels in it. He has apologized publicly "if I...