Saturday, September 27, 2008

A Right-Wing Boycott of Google?

Today, Google came out with an ad opposing Proposition 8 that seeks to ban gay marriage in California.

While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 — we should not eliminate anyone’s fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.
That about sums it up. Homophobic bigotry shouldn't keep gay people from exercising their fundamental rights.

There isn't that much of a distinction between homosexuality and heterosexuality as sexual orientations anyway. Developments among straight guys have been especially significant in blurring the line between heterosexual and homosexual. A lot of straight guys have a preference for male companionship and simulate gay sex so frequently that it's hard not to see their primary sexual orientation as being toward "homoeroticism." These guys might be having sex with females rather than males but they have one foot pretty firmly in the gay camp.

Likewise, the homoerotic sexual interests of gay males can be seen as comparable to the homoeroticism of many straight males. Thus, gay males should be seen as part of a homoerotic continuum rather than a strange "other" and gay marriage should be seen as part a standard continuum of marriage.

At least that's the way it looks with the college guys in my classes.

I guess somebody on the right could view this as "normalizing" homosexuality. And no doubt, Baptist leaders are drawing up their boycott plans even as I write. But all human beings are pretty strange. Why should gay people be seen as being any weirder than the rest of us.

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