Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself. Spain legalized same-sex marriage today, the last day of what is in this country Gay Pride Month (which proceeded from Gay Pride Weekend, the name of which I offered in the spring of 1970). I am very pleased not just with the action by Spain's Government but also with what the Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, said in the debate preceding the vote:

"We were not the first, but I am sure we will not be the last. After us will come many other countries, driven, ladies and gentlemen, by two unstoppable forces: freedom and equality".

The Associated Press article on Spain's courageous liberalism added:

Zapatero said the reform of [the] Spanish legal code simply adds one dry paragraph of legalese but means much more.

He called it "a small change in wording that means an immense change in the lives of thousands of citizens. We are not legislating, ladies and gentlemen, for remote unknown people. We are expanding opportunities for the happiness of our neighbors, our work colleagues, our friends, our relatives."

To think that 30 years ago, Spain was ruled by the arch-conservative dictator Francisco Franco (and yes, Franco is still dead). The Stonewall Riots in New York were in June 1969, 36 years ago, but we don't have gay marriage here. Our mealy-mouthed politicians, like New York City's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who is running for re-election, walk in the annual Gay Pride march (that I helped establish) but do nothing to legislate gay marriage in Albany, Sacramento, or anyplace else. And we let them get away with their hypocrisy.
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Meanwhile, Canada's House of Commons passed national gay-marriage legislation two days ago, and its Senate is expected to finalize passage by the end of July.
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60 years ago, Europe emerged from the worst war in world history, during which Europeans slaughtered each other by the millions. Today, they have a free-trade area, and most of the old combatants share a single currency. By contrast, the thirteen original United States, then separate countries, joined together 229 years ago and offered Canada admission to the Union 228 years ago, in Article XI of the Articles of Confederation (and Perpetual Union). Canada is not only still a separate country (to the immense economic harm of its inhabitants and political harm of Americans), but we don't even have a common currency, even tho we are far more alike than are Europeans.
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In both gay rights and international integration, we started out far ahead of our time, but have fallen behind. How did that happen?
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 1,744.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 12:22 PM