Supporters of marriage equality have often asked their opponents to clarify their argument, to explain just how gay marriage can threaten their own. Now we know - and in Minnesota, where GOP politicians and Catholic bishops are working to entrench discrimination in their defence of marriage, one gay man has offered an apology for the way in which equality activists have destroyed one high-profile heterosexual marriage in particular.
On Behalf Of All Gays, Man “Apologizes” For Destroying GOPer’s Marriage
After now-former Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch (R) resigned her leadership post over an “innappropriate relationship,” a Minneapolis gay man — on behalf of the entire gay community — is pouring salt on the wound.
John Medeiros, who curates an LGBT reading series in Minneapolis, wrote an open letter to Koch, saying he is sorry gays and lesbians have destroyed the institution of marriage and contributing to her inevitable relationship with a subordinate staffer.
“These recent events have made it quite clear that our gay and lesbian tacts have gone too far, affecting even the most respectful of our society,” Medeiros wrote in the letter. He continues:
We apologize that our selfish requests to marry those we love has cheapened and degraded traditional marriage so much that we caused you to stray from your own holy union for something more cheap and tawdry. And we are doubly remorseful in knowing that many will see this as a form of sexual harassment of a subordinate.
- TPMDC.
That letter, utterly brilliant! I wonder if he would mind if other’s did the same when, and it will be when, another right wing politico or journalist does the dirty…
I am conflicted over this. I distain sarcasm in formal and political discussion, I feel it has absolutely no place in constructive discussion (however, I love it in personal bantering among friends). That being said, I have to admit, that sometimes, it can be effective at getting your point across. I always encourage my friends and allies to take the higher road and to stay away from personally attacks and snarky comments, but however strongly I feel against them, I cannot deny that they are sometimes (however rarely) effective. I would defiantly would not have written it, but I cannot quite bring myself to condemn it.
My own attitude to the use of irony or sarcasm is simple: the validity, and the wisdom, rather depends on its quality. If it’s good (as this was), there is a place for it. This example neatly illustrates the fallacy of arguing that gay marriage undermines that of others - they do that for themselves. The irony makes the point much more effectively than the numerous posts I have seen, that make the same case directly.
But dull, wooden attempts at it simply fall flat - and may easily backfire.
very true. probably why I cannot truly criticize this particular statement.