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NEWSWEEK: Ted Olson: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

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#2

NEWSWEEK: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

Posted: 1/11/10 at 8:43am

That should be required reading for everyone across the political spectrum, starting with our president.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson
#5

NEWSWEEK: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

Posted: 1/11/10 at 10:12am

Nicely written, well argued, and I don't believe he means a word of it.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#6

NEWSWEEK: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

Posted: 1/11/10 at 10:14am

Isn't the case supposed to air on youtube? I couldn't find it.
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be enbered with your old nonsense. ~ Emerson
#8

NEWSWEEK: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

Posted: 1/11/10 at 11:26am

The SCOTUS just put a hold, for now at least, on televising the proceedings, even via delay on youtube. They will come a final decision to allow televising within the next few days.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson
#11

NEWSWEEK: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

Posted: 1/11/10 at 12:58pm

FYI - the live blogging at FDL is compelling...
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson
#13

NEWSWEEK: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

Posted: 1/11/10 at 2:48pm

According to the blogger, the lawyer defending prop 8 put a large piece of his argument behind procreation being a vital function of marriage. If that's their best argument, I like our chances.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson
#15

NEWSWEEK: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

Posted: 1/11/10 at 3:05pm

It's basically everything that's been said before by every liberal arguing for gay marriage. I hoped he would argue from the perspective of conservative principles, specifically smaller government, instead of resorting to the same arguments that have been made for years- and summarily ignored- by conservatives. By the end, I was surprised he hadn't regurgitated "It's not natural- like eyeglasses" and "Leviticus prohibits wearing polyester and eating shellfish too!"
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how
#16

NEWSWEEK: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

Posted: 1/11/10 at 3:51pm

It won't be enough to sway the Supremes. Bigotry isn't about reasoned argument, it is just about HATE.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#19

NEWSWEEK: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

Posted: 1/11/10 at 6:18pm

It's basically everything that's been said before by every liberal arguing for gay marriage.

Agreed. I was disappointed after reading it because the title didn't match the piece. I've read similar (and more convincing) arguments on plenty of liberal blogs.

I think most conservatives will write it off as either a conservative with a liberal argument or a fake conservative. It's not an inherently liberal argument, but it's inherently non-partisan. To be effective I think it needed to be a legitimate conservative argument. ie, more pandering.
#20

NEWSWEEK: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

Posted: 1/11/10 at 6:42pm

I'm glad other people said it before I did, or I'd be called negative and contrarian, but yeah, I don't see what's the big deal about this.
#21

NEWSWEEK: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

Posted: 1/11/10 at 8:16pm

Ted Olson's opening statement.

It might have been said before, but never in this context and never with such ramifications.

From Olson's opening statement.

===

The plaintiffs are two loving couples, American citizens, entitled to equality and due process under our Constitution. They are in deeply committed, intimate, and longstanding relationships. They want to marry the person they love; to enter into that “most important relation in life”; to share their dreams with their partners; and to confer the many benefits of marriage on their families.

But Proposition 8 singled out gay men and lesbians as a class, swept away their right to marry, pronounced them unequal, and declared their relationships inferior and less-deserving of respect and dignity.

In the words of the California Supreme Court, eliminating the right of individuals to marry a same-sex partner relegated those individuals to “second class” citizenship, and told them, their families and their neighbors that their love and desire for a sanctioned marital partnership was not worthy of recognition.
Text of Ted Olson’s Opening Statement in Prop. 8 Trial – As Prepared
#22

NEWSWEEK: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

Posted: 1/12/10 at 10:39am

The New Yorker has a huge article, but this is the best section:

===

One of the arguments that the anti-gay-marriage side has increasingly turned to outside the courtroom is that allowing same-sex marriage would hurt heterosexual marriage. At the pretrial hearing, Judge Walker kept asking Charles Cooper, the lawyer defending Proposition 8, how exactly it did so. "I’m asking you to tell me," he said at last, "how it would harm opposite-sex marriages."

"All right," Cooper said.

"All right," Walker said. Let’s play on the same playing field for once."

There was a pause—it seemed like a long one to people in the courtroom, though it was probably only a few seconds. And Cooper said, "Your Honor, my answer is: I don’t know. I don’t know."
A Risky Proposal: Is it too soon to petition the Supreme Court on gay marriage?
#23

NEWSWEEK: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

Posted: 1/12/10 at 10:45am

Per, the smart, wonky folks at www.fivethirtyeight.com, the divorce rate in Massachusetts has DROPPED BY 21% in the five years following the legalization of gay marriage.
Gay marriage impact on divorce
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson

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