"If you don't like gay marriage, don't get gay married"

I shot this photo yesterday in Manhattan while Kee and I walked along The Highline. Nice.  The building was in the meat-packing district. 

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Ex-Veep Cheney weighs in on gay marriage: President Obama? You've been Dicked.

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by Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor
Illustration by Jack Brummet, Editor-in-chief

How often in the last nine years has Dick Cheney taken a stand to the left of our current President? As far as I can tell, once. On Monday. Ex-Veep Cheney, who has made a hobby lately of defending his administration's choices, did the right thing and came out squarely in favor of gay marriage (not unlike another arch-conservative, Ted Olson). And he did it with sincerity and panache. Barack Obama, in the meantime, is left to babble about civil unions.

Incredibly enough, Dick Cheney took time from his relentless defense of the former Bush administration to say, yeah, gay marriage is OK. Barack Obama, for possibly ethical, but more likely politically expedient motives, sticks with the civil union dodge.

I would almost grant Dick Cheney an All This Is That halo , but I just can't bring myself to do that. The ATIT halo is only awarded to real heroes (like Mario Cuomo or the hero pilot Sully). After all, Mr. Cheney has spent the last six months spouting his self-justifying gibberish to anyone who would give him the time of day, in hopes of derailing Barack Obama (or at the very least, burnishing the Bush Administration's pathetic "legacy"). But like the stopped clock that is right twice a day, even Ex-veep Cheney gets it right every now and then.

Mister President, I think you've been Dicked.
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***Editorial - Pablo Fanque*** A Fish Rots From The Head Down - Obama's Gay Marriage Problem

"favors civil unions"

Editorial by Pablo Fanque,
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

I hear people continually excoriate the religious right, Rick Warren, Rush Limbaugh and others for opposing gay marriage. But what about El Jefe? Barack Obama is part of the opposition too. . .every bit as much as Rick Warren. I became, fairly late in the race, an Obama supporter. As President, he has surprised me. He's doing a great job. But, in my booklet, his Achilles' Heel is his policy on gay marriage; we should have known, and remembered that. He told us during the election.

Although Barack Obama "supports civil unions," he is against gay marriage. I have come to see this "supports civil unions" as a smarmy dodge that people all across the spectrum employ. Obama's luke-warm support does no favors to anyone at all. In the end, really, how different is this from George Bush? Rush Limbaugh [1], or Louisiana Gov. Jindal? They, too, oppose gay marriage.

In an interview with the Chicago Daily Tribune, Obama said, "I'm a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman."

Barack Obama did vote against a Federal Marriage Amendment and opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. He said he would support civil unions between gay and lesbian couples, as well as letting individual states determine if marriage between gay and lesbian couples should be legalized.


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From the White House Web site: "President Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights."


Click to enlarge - "I love you, man"

And yet. . .and yet, I have been spammed with emails, and petitions, asking me to come out against Rick Warren, and other conservatives publicly opposed to gay marriage. What about the guy at the top? "A fish rots from the head down," as Michael Dukakis noted about President Reagan. Nothing has changed. We just like the fish better. Mister President. . .it's time to set aside your cultural predispositions and do what's right. Sure, you'll take some heat, but let's face it--you will never be in a stronger position to expend some of your hard-earned political capital.
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[1] Rush recently delivered this shocking bombshell: "…let’s say we discover the gene that says the kid’s gonna be gay. How many parents, if they knew before the kid was gonna be born, [that he] was gonna be gay, they would take the pregnancy to term? Well, you don’t know but let’s say half of them said, “Oh, no, I don’t wanna do that to a kid.” [Then the] gay community finds out about this. The gay community would do the fastest 180 and become pro-life faster than anybody you’ve ever seen. … They’d be so against abortion if it was discovered that you could abort what you knew were gonna be gay babies.”
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Keelin Curran talks about marriage to Jack Brummet

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Why Obama and Hillary both suck on the issue of gay marriage

Barack Obama "supports civil unions," but is against gay marriage. In an Chicago Daily Tribune interview, Obama said, "I'm a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman." [ed note: does this sentence make any more sense to you than it does to me?]


"Giving them a set of basic rights would allow them to experience their relationship and live their lives in a way that doesn't cause discrimination," Obama said. "I think it is the right balance to strike in this society." [ed. note: isn't this the same sort of argument people once used for why blacks should not be able to vote?]


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Hillary Clinton also opposes gay marriage and supports civil unions between members of the same sex. Hillary was quoted in The New York Daily News saying: "Marriage has got historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time, and I think a marriage is as a marriage always has been, between a man and a woman." [ed note: only slightly more palatable gibberish that her opponent].
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