Archive for Maggie Gallagher
She’s Half Right
Here’s Maggie Gallagher, on the reason the LGBT community has made marriage equality a priority. It’s not really about marriage, after all:
“Gay marriage is primarily about establishing an equality right,” she said, “a moral narrative about equality in the law and the culture.”
I half-agree. For complex reasons, marriage has become the central cause of the [...]
What, Exactly, Will Maggie Gallagher and Andrew Sullivan be Discussing?
Tomorrow’s event at the Cato Institute seems like an intriguing cage-match between Andrew Sullivan, a sort-of-lapsed [small c]onservative and the Ultra-Right wing, virulently anti-gay Maggie Gallagher. The stated topic is whether there’s a place for gays in conservatism and the conservative movement. A more perspicacious question might convert the “and” to “or”: Is there a [...]
Maggie Gallagher is “Just Saying…” (But You Can’t)
Maggie Gallagher says:
We have no scientific evidence at all, that I know of, that children raised by same-sex couples benefit if their unions are legally considered marriages. Why is that now self-evident?
Then she says:
I do not think same-sex marriage will serve child well-being in any appreciable way, and I don’t think there is much [...]
Drop the Bombs [On] the Minarets
Voters in Switzerland just approved a referendum amending the Swiss Constitution to ban the construction of minarets attached to mosques. The supporters claim it’s not about restricting the religion of Islam, but about the minaret as a political symbol. Whatever.
Here, among other places, I’ve objected to putting people’s rights up for a popular vote. Of [...]
NOM Approves of Marriage Between Man, Videogame Woman
A Japanese man’s recent marriage to a videogame character, Nena, is reported here:
game
Brian Brown, Executive Director of the National Organization for Marriage (”NOM”), issued a statement approving the union. “We here at NOM believe that marriage is the union of man and woman,” said Brown. “It’s true that the couple can’t procreate, but this marriage, [...]
Rhode Island, Salt Lake City, and Working with Principled Opponents
Within the past couple of days, two astonishing things happened:
In Rhode Island, Governor Carcieri vetoed a very modest bill that would have provided domestic partners with the right to make funeral arrangements for their partners. Although the legislature may have the votes to override this veto, it’s nonethless appalling. After providing a few arguments against [...]
Maggie’s Crystal Ball
I think it’s time for people who are serious about the marriage equality debate to bump Maggie Gallagher off the stage. Her assertions are increasingly groundless or off-point, and it probably doesn’t make sense to waste much more time debating them. (This isn’t just because I strongly disagree with her; David Blankenhorn, for example, has [...]
Maggie Gallagher Weighs In (on DOMA Brief)
In my post lauding the Obama Administration for plainly stating, in its latest filing in the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA”) case, that “the United States does not believe that DOMA is rationally related to any legitimate government interests in procreation and child-rearing,” I predicted “eruption of the right-wing volcanos.”
And so has it come to [...]
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatheads
The silly season may be upon us.
The serious arguments against marriage equality are falling fast, leaving only nonsense and fear behind. Even many conservatives who formerly opposed equality have come around (sometimes only by recognizing that, whatever the perils of allowing same-sex marriages, they pale as threats to the institution next to divorce and the [...]
Down Payment on Demolition
I recently promised to end the career of anti-marriage-equality columnist Maggie Gallagher. As you can tell from this summary of her impressive accomplishments, this would constitute no small task (others have tried). It’s not exactly a fair fight, since I have no public career for her to reciprocally destroy.
Let me begin by saying that I’m [...]