To my beloved niece and nephew. I’ve been recovering all week, but the DP did most of the heavy lifting. Here they are again, just because I’m a proud uncle:
SAVAGE BLOG: Fasten your laptops. Next week, Dan Savage will be guest-blogging in this space. He’s the editor of the Stranger in Seattle, writes a weekly sex advice column that is easily the best on the planet, and has also produced some seriously good books. My favorites: “The Kid,” a memoir of being a gay dad, and “Skipping Towards Gomorrah,” a cheerful account of trying to commit the seven deadly sins across America. His new book, “The Commitment,” is due out in September. Check out his first blogging experience here, live, on Monday.
CHANNELING FALWELL: “One of the things that strikes me more, not less, forcibly as time has passed is the contempt that Muslim extremists feel for us. They despise us for our decadence, and I feel more and more forced to accept the painful truth that they have a point.” – Minette Marin, blaming Britain’s liberalism for Islamo-fascist murder.
ROBERTS AND ROMER: I don’t think there’s much here. Roberts helped out on a fascinating Supreme Court case for his firm. It doesn’t tell us how he’d rule on, say, Lawrence vs Texas. My guess is that as an educated man of his generation, he’s well aware of gay people, doesn’t approve of discrimination, but has a very limited idea of what the constitution can do to protect minorities. I learned more from the reaction of people like James Dobson. For Dobson, any hint of sympathy for homosexuals is anathema. Roberts is a better man than that. And from everything I’ve read, is a superb choice for SCOTUS.
MOMENTUM BUILDS: The latest poll on marriage rights for gays is encouraging news for my side of the debate. For the first time, a national majority (53 percent) support civil unions “permitting gays and lesbians to enter into legal arrangements that would give them many of the same rights as married couples.” Marriage still only gets 36 percent support nationally, but I bet in many blue states, the number is higher (and it’s back to the levels before the election year Republican campaign to demonize it). Interestingly, the highest levels of support come among Independents, not Democrats or Republicans. Given how new this topic is – it’s only been fully in the national discourse for a decade or so – these are striking figures. Support for a constitutional amendment banning all protections for gay couples has sunk from 35 percent to 29 percent in the last year. This last week in Ptown was also family week. Every year, the week has grown. This year it was almost oppressive – kids everywhere, strollers on every sidewalk, bedtime stories at the library, beaches jammed with buckets and shovels. Whatever happens, this social shift is simply reality, part of a bewilderingly rapid change in what can almost no longer be called a single gay culture. I expected some sort of assimilation process. But the speed of it is staggering. The poll also has fascinating data on other social issues. For all their hysteria, the theocons are losing almost every debate.
The Dish 