Gay people shouldn't worry too much about Proposition 8"Gay people shouldn't worry too much about Proposition 8: Marriage isn't all it's cracked up to beMarriage isn't all it's cracked up to be

Mark Simpson writes:

"It's better to marry than burn with passion," declared St Paul. But now marriage itself seems to have become a burning passion – or at least, gay marriage.

The re-banning of gay marriage in California earlier this month with the passage of Proposition 8 has been presented by gay marriage advocates as a body-blow for gay rights. Angry gay people and their allies have protested across the US, some even rioting. The timely release of the Gus Van Sant movie Milk, about the murder in 1977 of Harvey Milk, the US's first out elected official, has fuelled the sense of gay outrage and defiance.

Gay marriage is being presented by many gay people and liberals on both sides of the Atlantic as the touchstone of gay equality. Settling for anything less is a form of Jim Crow style gay segregation and second-class citizenship.

But not all gay people agree. This one sees gay marriage so much as a touchstone as a fetish. A largely symbolic and emotional issue that in the US threatens to undermine real, non-symbolic same-sex couple protection: civil unions bestow in effect the same legal status as marriage in several US states – including California. As a result of the religious right's mobilisation against gay marriage, civil unions have been rolled back in several US states.

 

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guardian.co.uk, UK