On Friday the 13th, Feb 2004, Doug Henwood wrote:
> > It looks like he'll end up having to defend radical positions no
> > matter what he does.
>
> Or, he could go out of his way to prove otherwise - e.g., support a
> marriage amendment, etc.
Unless he followed my advice, and proposed a marriage amendment that would reserve the word "marriage" for heterosexuals, and create a "civic union" whose spouses would have all the same rights under all state and federal law. That would be the best thing that ever happened to us. It would start a culture war we win, because we had the high ground. It would force the right to be against equal rights, justice and tolerance. It would lessen their support among the center, and drive increasing numbers to the left, repelled by the right's true face. And it would make what is now a wedge issue for them into a wedge issue for us, because there are lots of conservatives who support civic union, including both libertarians and cultural conservative family values types. And it has support among the conservative punditocracy, including David Brooks, Christopher Caldwell and Andrew Sullivan.
It would be a long hard battle. But the longer it went on, the stronger our side would get.
Michael