So, how about it? Has it all come clear? Has the true horror been made absolutely and irrefutably real? Because know this for certain: There is no going back.
Behold, beautiful and confused children of Earth: The smoke has cleared, the glitter bomb has settled and finally, after years of deliciously imaginary back-room strategizing and decades -- if not centuries -- of secretly brainwashing millions of innocent children, punk-rock girls and repressed '50s dads ...
After panicking the religious right, inducing nightmares in the Pope and shamelessly luring countless congresspersons and church pastors, mayors and deeply shamed NFL players into the shimmery rainbow fold, the world-famous "homosexual agenda" has, once and for all, screamed itself alive.
Have you noticed? Have you read and felt and pored through, stifled a sniff and perhaps even let a few tears flow? Have you yet had your heart cracked open, just a little? Or maybe a lot?
I dare you. I dare you right now.
Especially you, over there on the convulsive and ever so baffled religious right. Especially you, bleak and loveless Mormon Church elders. Especially you from the aged, encrusted generations who are right now looking around in buzzing terror and not sure what to make of it all. Especially you up there on the pulpit, waving your arms and wielding your Bible like it was a dull switchblade, wailing that the fabric is coming undone and nothing will ever be the same again.
You know what, pastor? You are absolutely goddamn right. You know what else? Thank sweet Jesus for that. I mean, really.
To make it even easier to understand, to produce irrefutable evidence of the agenda's ultimate goals, to further confound (or perhaps finally enlighten?) those who still think homosexuality is a choice, who think it the devil's work and believe it morally repugnant, well, we have pictures. Lots and lots of pictures, all from New York, all from the first days of legal gay marriage in that fine state.
And lo, they are enough to shake you to the core, reignite the soul, reaffirm your simplest faith in this rough beast known as humanity. They are enough, if you look just right and open a bit wider, to make you forget the woes of the world and be reassured that the simplest truths remain, as ever, the most profound.
Or let's put it this way: A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a photo of two people aswim in true and respected love is worth just about every book, poem and bible ever written in this messy and godsmacked little realm we call home.
Don't believe me? Click the gallery I've included in this column (see "read the rest" link at bottom), or any other floating around the Web right now, and be amazed, refreshed, ignited, heartspun and soulwarmed, over and over again, as many times as you like, as many times as it takes. I've looked through all these pictures a dozen times, and take my word for it, it never fails.
Here it is, over and over, one stunning photo after another, an endless parade of people simply bursting at the seams with love and human potential, radiating and terrified and madly aglow with the possibility of it all.
Here they are, in an incredible array of shapes and sizes, ages and hair colors, backgrounds and melodramas, each and every one finally able, with the state's full blessing, to consecrate their vows. Hey, just like you! Imagine.
The good news is, there is almost no way your Republican dad, your deeply homophobic brother, your Puritanical grandma, or pretty much anyone with a functioning and extant heart can see these pictures and not suddenly be drained of all protest, all resistance, all ridiculous fear of what "the homosexual agenda" is really all about. It is, after all, about just one thing, and one thing only. And it always has been.
Perhaps it's too much to ask....
Read the rest of this column by clicking here.
Mark Morford is the author of The Daring Spectacle: Adventures in Deviant Journalism, a mega-collection of his finest columns for the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate. He recently suggested that you please live in sin forevermore, that you also please help protect the conjugal sex fruit, and that you seem to enjoy always walking in circles. Join him on Facebook, or email him. Not to mention...
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Gay Marriage & Homosexuality - Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Gay Marriage: The Arguments and the Motives
New York Allows Same-Sex Marriage, Becoming Largest State to Pass ...
Historic Vote Makes Gay Marriage Legal in New York State - TIME
"Accept our lifestyle or we will criminalize your beliefs. We will start with shaming you with the help of our allies in the media and education and then move on to criminalizing your views as destructive and therefore we can limit your speech. We now have "hate" crimes laws on the books that show we are more valuable than you and if you do anything against us you will get more time in jail than doing the same thing against a heterosexual. We are coming into the schools to make sure your kids donn't think like you because we know better and we are going to start at very early ages even if the discussion of sex is lost on 6 year olds. We don't care that you have religious beliefs supposedly protected by the Constitution, you are wrong and therefore cannot believe that stuff anymore. Our right to have sex with whomever we want takes precedence over your religious beliefs."
Well, I try to base it on reasoning, evidence, and being informed about the issues...but we all make mistakes!
And as for impact...well, same-sex marriage affects society and you and I are members of that society.