An Apology

from a long-time opponent of same-sex marriage, Rev. Benjamin L. Corey, at Patheos:

Prior to my paradigm shift circa 2009, I was a major opponent of marriage equality. One of my go-to lines when asked why, was always the catch-all phrase “because it will hurt the sanctity of marriage”.

I was convinced that in some direct way, same sex marriage would harm mine. If, for no other reason, than Fox New said it, I believed it, and that settled it.

Seriously, I believed that– and said it often– even though I was previously divorced, and let’s admit: there’s no sanctity in divorce.

This year as I approach seven years of marriage and look back on all that we’ve experienced, I realized that we’ve spent our entire marriage living in states that have legally passed marriage equality. Same sex marriages have been happening around us the entire time, and it made me realize:

Your same sex marriage hasn’t affected the sanctity of mine.

Not even a little. The fact that I’ve lived in states where my LGBT friends and neighbors are treated equal in the eyes of the law has not in the smallest way, done anything to harm the “sanctity” of my marriage.

(Emphasis in original.)

It goes on, to point out who is really hurting the "sanctity" of marriage (sorry, but I have trouble taking the sanctity part seriously -- it's a secular institution, and as far as we know, always has been -- priests have pretty much been optional).

It's worth reading the whole thing.

Oh, and on the other side of the coin, we have Phyllis Schlafly:

On her latest radio commentary, right wing blowhard Phyllis Schlafly made the baseless claim that there is an ongoing exodus of anti-gay Americans away from marriage equality states because of pro-LGBT laws.

Said Schlafly:

“…many Americans are dissenting with their feet, by moving away from same-sex marriage states and into the many states that continue to recognize the value of marriage as being between only one man and one woman.”

Don't bother looking for any statistics on this -- Schlafly's making it up.

And one wonders where those poor people are going to go when the Supreme Court finally gets around to knocking down anti-marriage laws nation-wide? Nigeria? Uganda?