National Review dead-ender, Ed Whelan, still refuses to use the simple term marriage when referring to gay people who are married. We are “married,” not married. Under the law, of course, I am married in state and federal law – indistinguishably from my fellow straight married couples. I do not walk around with quotation marks around my relationship any more – and, as Wally Olson notes, not even Scalia and Alito went so far as to insult fellow citizens in this manner. Wally makes a point I have long insisted upon – which is the double standard deployed by some theocons with respect to divorce and marriage. No traditional Catholic can recognize a civil divorce or re-marriage. Do they put scare quotes around “divorced” or “re-married”? No. Do they threaten to end all their social services if they unwittingly employ a “divorced” non-Catholic or Catholic in their social services? No.
This they reserve for gay people. And they bridle at the suggestion that they are motivated in any way by animus. Well, Ed, prove it.
The Dish 