Why Orson Scott Card should never be given the podium...

[bovil]

This just in from Cheryl Morgan:

In the Mormon Times, Orson Scott Card publishes a strident call for revolution against governments that allow LGBT people to get married:

How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.

Comments

[betnoir.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I wish government would get the hell out of the marriage business entirely.

Barring that, the next best thing is equal access to any and all.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Marriage is a social contract and a sacrament. The government is involved in the social contract side. It must be.

A recent article (http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid58444.asp) suggests that Thomas Disch's recent suicide may have been, in part, spurred by his landlord's attempt to evict him from the apartment he and his partner of 35 years shared until his partner's death.

Disch's name was not on the lease. Last fall the landlord won the legal battle denying Disch's claim on the lease.

Had they been married, he would have had much better legal grounds to fight the eviction, and the case would have likely never gone to court.

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

Yeah, 'cause you know governments proclaiming stuff about marriage have been SOO kind to mormons through the years.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Marriage was just a symptom. The 19th century Mormon Church saw itself separate from the USA, and were ready to go to war over their God-given right to self-determination and immunity from Federal oversight.

It's very much like the early history of Islam, only without the victory part. The Mormons didn't actually go to war and destroy their opposition, they only engaged in small acts of terrorism and gave up when the Feds went after them.

Card's position is totally consistent with that history.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

And to think, I have friends who actually justify reading him by saying, "Oh, he had an opinion once, but it's not like he's anyone's face or makes a big deal about being anti-gay. I don't know why you want to make such an issue of it."

[cmdrsuzdal.livejournal.com]

But... but... some of his best friends are gay, he totally said so!

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Yeah...no.

Don't make me make a ribbon. I'll totally do it.

[cmdrsuzdal.livejournal.com]

What, one that says "Orson's Gay Friend"? But who would you give it to? It would sit alone in a drawer with all my "La Amiga Latina de Larry" ribbons.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

I like "Some of his best friends are gay." *grin*

You actually have La Amiga Latina de Larry" ribbons? You have to explain to me the thing with Larry.

[cmdrsuzdal.livejournal.com]

No, I don't actually have those ribbons, geez. I'm referring to the posted elsewhere in lj-land Niven thing and his Homeland Security gig saving us from the Hispanic hordes or whatever.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

But you so *need* the ribbon. *grin*

[cmdrsuzdal.livejournal.com]

Yanno, I was being silly when I wrote that but now I do kind of want it. The problem is that for maximum funny its better in Spanish and then you need two, one for male one female.

Hmmm... thinking.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Actually, Latino/as get around this by using the @-sign to signify something that can be male or female all at once.

[johnnyeponymous.livejournal.com]

I desperately need that ribbon too!

I've found a place that sells Mexican flag t-shirts that I'll buy three of to wear all weekend at Silicon.
Chris

[cmdrsuzdal.livejournal.com]

Hah, that's excellent XD

[danjite.livejournal.com]

"Niven said a good way to help hospitals stem financial losses is to spread rumors in Spanish within the Latino community that emergency rooms are killing patients in order to harvest their organs for transplants."

Ahhh... futurists.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I had forgotten about that thing. It's subsumed into my whole, "Eh, not a big LN fan, no..." And *that* is further a subcategory of the whole not reading male authors thing.

[unayok.livejournal.com]

My mind keeps going to something like "Friend of Orson" (ala "Friend of Dorothy") but then I'm twisted at times.

[sinick.livejournal.com]

help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.

...unless, of course, your children are GAY.

...which of course they won't be.

...mot as far as he'll ever admit, anyway.

[howeird]

Everyone is entitled to a soap box. I'm looking forward to your letter to the editor of the Mormon Times rebutting OSC's stridations.

One of these eons, everyone will see the light and understand that government has no role in marriage. Disch lost his eviction case because for 20+ years he did not add his name to his partner's lease. That's a committment he could have made legally.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

I used to think that the government should just take "marriage" off the books.

Marriage as a legal construct (not a sacrament, I couldn't give a rat's ass about sacrament for the most part), though, is important. It's given standing in society and law that basic contract law is not afforded.

I've watched too many people who have done their due diligence, created ironclad wills and trusts, and still lost their whole lives because some outsider estranged "family" member came in with better sleazier lawyers and got the contracts and agreements invalidated.

[howeird]

Nah, I don't buy it. The party with the best lawyer (usually the party with the most money and/or greed) wins, regardless of the piece of paper. Take palimony, for example. And also coming from the opposite direction, I don't want a prson's will to be overturned because someone with a piece of paper saying they are married contests it.

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

I really used to be a big fan of his, from when I first saw his short stories published in Analog. Now he creeps me out.

tag you're it.

[lobolance.livejournal.com]

why not? Don't answer that. ;-)

http://lobolance.livejournal.com/163581.html