The Word from Massachusetts: Gay Marriage? Eh.

The Religious Right tends to blather on and on about how gay marriage will ruin American society. (It's always interesting to see how bigots think anything that is different will pollute their so-called pristine society.) Well, tomorrow marks one year since Massachusetts allow same-sex couples to marry and the result? Well, God hasn't destroyed the Bay State.

A special report by the Boston Globe shows that in the past 12 months support for gay marriage has grown from 40 percent in 2004 to 56 percent today. Also an amendment that would have banned gay marriage, but allowed for civil unions is losing ground in the state legislature with a number of lawmakers changing their minds on ending gay marriage. Why the change? Listen to what Republican Senator Brian Lees says:

Like the majority of those surveyed, Lees, the state Senate's ranking Republican, said the relative lack of apparent societal damage caused by the onset of same-sex marriage has given him pause -- even though he was a coauthor of the amendment before the Legislature. ''You've heard from many folks that this would be a huge problem for the Commonwealth, and none of those problems have arisen," Lees said.

The far right loves to talk about how doomsday will happen if same sex couples marry and in the end, Massachusetts is still Massachusetts. Life goes on.

This new normalcy hasn't kept the far right from trying to roll back gay marriage. If the amendment to ban gay marriage fails in 2006, they will gun for placing a total ban-marriage and civil unions- come 2008.

I think this reveals that the far right is not interested "protecting marriage." That was never the issue. Elton John getting married to his partner is not going to affect my parents' marriage of 37 years. The opponents of gay marriage are just the same old homophobes who would like to keep us all in the closet. They spread fear about two women or two men wanting to be married, when there is nothing to fear; we are Americans just like they are, who pay their taxes and uphold the laws.

As we see marriage rights take place in Massachusetts as well as civil unions in Vermont and Connecticut, we will see more and more that being gay is not a threat to society. And more and more the theocons will lose the argument. In my view, the fari right maybe winning battles right now, but in the long run, they will lose this war.