Dreher v. gay marriage

Rod Dreher crawled out on his worm-eaten plank of theocratic social conservatism to opine on the topic of gay marriage and had his panicked fear of those homosexuals wanting to share in recognition of their committed love shown to be … well, shown to be just what it is. Homophobia coupled with hysterics.

After some bloggy exchanges here’s Rod (the apparent rod-fearer) with his weak sauce response:

Andrew Sullivan is still banging on about my “panic” over homosexuality, and his colleague Ta-Nehisi Coates likens me to a segregationist. Never mind that being accused of “panic” by Andrew is like being called a sot by Amy Winehouse, what I find so instructive about this exchange is how many on the left reflexively treat conservative objections to, and critical questions about, same-sex marriage: they describe conservatives as emotionally unhinged and bigoted.

And his theocratic beliefs force him to see this issue in terms of conservative or liberal. Nope. That’s only for those who choose to base legislation on the dogma of their particular religion. Sounds a lot like those medievals over in the Mideast, huh?

And placing Sullivan on the left? Er, yeah.

Obama’s toughness on display

He’s willing to face up to a controversial political subject (gay rights) in front of a very tough crowd (black evangelicals.)

Here’s a Ben Smith post:

Selling gay rights

Obama’s rally in Beaumont today was the highest-energy of this Texas swing, with a crowd that was about three-quarters black cheering at almost every turn.

An interesting moment came when he was asked a question about LGBT rights and delivered an answer that seemed to suit the questioner, listing the various attributes — race, gender, etc. — that shouldn’t trigger discrimination, to successive cheers. When he came to saying that gays and lesbians deserve equality, though, the crowd fell silent.

So he took a different tack:

“Now I’m a Christian, and I praise Jesus every Sunday,” he said, to a sudden wave of noisy applause and cheers.

“I hear people saying things that I don’t think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian,” he said, and the crowd seemed to come along with him this time.

The moment reminded me of a conversation I had recently with a senior figure in the national gay rights movement, who noted that Obama’s deference to some black Christian discomfort with homosexuality — his refusal to dump the “ex-gay” gospel singer Donnie McClurkin from a tour — angered some gays and lesbians; but conversely, that his ability to sell gay rights in the black church is unique and appealing.

I think gay rights should be a given, but they aren’t. The GOP is very active against gay rights, and almost no politician is willing to touch the subject other than in front of that constituency.

It says a lot about Obama,  the candidate and the man, that he’s willing to bring the topic up over and over again. Even in front of wary, and maybe hostile, crowds.