{"id":35529,"date":"2013-04-04T08:42:42","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T13:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=35529"},"modified":"2013-09-06T15:25:17","modified_gmt":"2013-09-06T20:25:17","slug":"separate-but-freaquel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=35529","title":{"rendered":"Separate But Freaquel"},"content":{"rendered":"

(SCENE: \u00a0MITCH is at the grocery store. \u00a0He meets Avery LIBRELLE, who is also out shopping)<\/em><\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0I’m\u00a0so\u00a0<\/em>upset that the GOP in the Legislature has muddied the waters with their “Civil Union” proposal.<\/p>\n

MITCH: Why’s that?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0Civil unions are nothing but separate but equal.<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0Yeah, that’s the clich\u00e9\u00a0du jour\u00a0<\/em>for gay marriage supporters. \u00a0The idea that having an identical civil contract that confers exactly the same rights – in the eyes of the government, which is what we’re talking about here – is somehow like\u00a0Plessy v. Ferguson\u00a0<\/em>Jim Crow-era absurdities is completely nuts. \u00a0From the perspective of government, it’s more like “Equal but Equal”.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0But the word “marriage” has a status to it that “civil unions” doesn’t.<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0And that remark shows what “gay marriage” proponents are really about. \u00a0It has little to do with “rights”, and lots to do, I suspect, with forcing society into accepting something that it, on its own, just does not. \u00a0 The “status” of the word “marriage” is a matter of individual perspective and belief; is it government’s job to change that, for its own good?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0Sure!<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0Huh. \u00a0Anyway, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0No kidding. \u00a0The GOP is wasting the legislature’s time with this bill, bringing it up after the deadline for policy bills.<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0Right. \u00a0No different than Representatives Paymar and Martens still flogging their gun grab legislation. \u00a0They can’t get committee hearings, but they can still bring up their bill as an amendment to another bill during floor debate.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0Well, that’s different.<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0Why?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0I don’t know. (takes a bunch of grapes from the produce stand, picks a few, starts eating<\/em>) It just is.<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0OK. \u00a0Well, anyway – I think this means the GOP minority sees that there’s a fracture in the DFL caucus. \u00a0We know that outstate DFLers are feeling\u00a0really\u00a0<\/em>nervous about this bill – that support for gay marriage, like gun grabs, is entirely focused in the Metro. \u00a0It’d be dumb for them, as a minority,\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>to propose the compromise; it shows the people that, contrary to the DFL and media’s narrative, there\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>a compromise.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0That’s so wrong. \u00a0We should not play games with civil rights.<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0Like Paymar and Martens and Latz are doing?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0Oh, that’s different. \u00a0That’s about the children.<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0So is marriage.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE (eating more grapes<\/em>) \u00a0Well, the courts have ruled on this already.<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0Right – the courts ruled that civil unions interactions with existing laws, and the federal DOMA law, were a problem. \u00a0So the law needs to be written right, and adjustments need to be made to other laws, state and federal. \u00a0That’s what legislatures do; try to pass laws that pass legal muster.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0But eventually gay marriage is going to happen. \u00a0Young people all support it.<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0Maybe they do. \u00a0Young people also made Justin Bieber and Nicky Minaj stars. \u00a0More to the point? \u00a0Most “young people” have no idea what marriage really is. \u00a0But whatever, fine; maybe gay marriage is<\/em> inevitable in the great scheme of things. \u00a0And truth be told, but for one thing, I don’t really care.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0(3\/4 done with bunch of grapes<\/em>) And that one thing is that you’re a bigot.<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0Er, no. \u00a0In fact, I guarantee I’ve put more on the line against genuine hatred of gays than you have or ever will. \u00a0But no, the one thing is that gay marriage is one more attack on the importance of gender – the idea that the sexes are different, and different for a reason, and that reason is that each gender has a vital role in raising the next generation of children.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0Gays can raise children just as well as breeders. \u00a0Sometimes better!<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0Right. \u00a0This isn’t a dig at gays’ motivations as adoptive parents; I think gay adoptive parents are a better idea than, say, single parents if that’s the choice, which it very rarely is. \u00a0And at the moment, I don’t doubt that gay parents\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>better parents than straight parents, as an average across all of society, if only because you have to be so superhuman-ly above average to qualify to adopt, whatever your affectional orientation. \u00a0In fact, that is one of the reasons I would\u00a0like\u00a0<\/em>to see gay marriage – so that we can drop this absurd stereotype of the Magic Gay Couple, all superhuman in their loving wisdom. \u00a0I joke that Gays will have truly arrived as equals when you see a gay married couple on\u00a0Cops<\/em>, with a lady in a wife-beater T-shirt being dragged out to a squad car as her wife screams “I’ll be waitin’ for ya, Evangeline! \u00a0Ah love yewwww!”.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0That’s just weird (almost done with grapes<\/em>)<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0Whatever – the point is, when society grows beyond the narrative it’s been fed this past few years, the idea that gay couples are\u00a0actually better<\/em>\u00a0than straight couples, then maybe we can talk about equality.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0Oh, whatever. \u00a0Hey, didn’t you predict gay marriage would die in committee?<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0Yep. \u00a0I win some, I boot some. \u00a0I think gay marriage is worth more to the DFL as a wedge than as a few thousand married couples with nothing to be pissed off about other than…property taxes and business taxes and regulations that restrict entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0Huh? \u00a0Well, you were wrong.<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0Really? \u00a0When did Governor Messinger<\/del> Dayton sign the gay marriage bill into law?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0He hasn’t yet.<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0Huh. \u00a0OK.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0But they will pass it! \u00a0They have to!<\/p>\n

MITCH: OK! \u00a0We’ll see!<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0(finishes grapes, tosses stem into trash bucket<\/em>)<\/p>\n

MITCH: \u00a0Um – were you going to pay for those?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0Oh, it’s not shoplifting. It’s an undocumented meal. \u00a0The AP says so.<\/p>\n

(And SCENE)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(SCENE: \u00a0MITCH is at the grocery store. \u00a0He meets Avery LIBRELLE, who is also out shopping) LIBRELLE: \u00a0I’m\u00a0so\u00a0upset that the GOP in the Legislature has muddied the waters with their “Civil Union” proposal. MITCH: Why’s that? LIBRELLE: \u00a0Civil unions are nothing but separate but equal. MITCH: \u00a0Yeah, that’s the clich\u00e9\u00a0du jour\u00a0for gay marriage supporters. \u00a0The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,132],"tags":[236],"class_list":["post-35529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-war","category-mn-legislature","tag-dramatization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35529"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38199,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35529\/revisions\/38199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}