It’s a gay time for America.
Last week, Time magazine released an issue featuring either two men or two women kissing on the cover, with a headline declaring, “Gay marriage already won.”
The statement — not unusual for a magazine that has received flak for presenting a darkened photo of O.J. Simpson and, more recently, a breastfeeding mom on the cover — is an overstatement.
Thirty-one states still have some level of ban on same-sex marriage. Not exactly a victory.
The good news is that whatever strides same-sex marriage hasn’t made politically, it has socially. November exit polls show 83 percent of voters believe same-sex marriage will be legal within the next 10 years, and one in seven adults’ opposition to it has turned to support, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
While Time was declaring the victory of gay marriage, the Supreme Court had begun session debating the constitutionality of Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). No harsh feelings toward Time, but its statement was a bit too soon. The justices are obviously divided on the issue of same-sex marriage, or, as the eternally youthful Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg calls it, “skim-milk marriage.”
Opinions on skim milk aside, I have faith the Supreme Court will come to the right decision and declare both Prop 8 and DOMA unconstitutional — in a few months, that is.
What this case has done is open my eyes to just how aged and muddled in government bureaucracy the justices are. They seem to think “homosexual” is much more widely used than “gay,” and the majority of them seem to be concerned with the political benefits to same-sex marriage, rather than the emotional. Justice Antonin Scalia didn’t even know how many states allowed gay marriage.
For the record, Justice Scalia, it’s nine plus Washington, D.C., the city over which you so proudly rule in your starched black robe.
For faculty, Elon University has taken steps in the right direction. Domestic partners, both same-sex and opposite sex, can “participate in special benefits in the same manner as full-time faculty and staff spouses,” according to Elon’s 2012 Benefits Summary.
Where Elon seems to be dropping the ball is on the student governmental level. We elected a president who vetoed a bill to remove Chick-fil-A, which many students see as a harmful and discriminatory business. Then, we almost elected another who organized a Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day at Elon because a nationally organized, Tea Party-sanctioned one wasn’t enough already.
Gay marriage hasn’t won yet, but it is certainly making strides. When President Obama came out in support of it in May, he paved the way for other Democratic, and even some Republican leaders, to announce their support as well.
It’s time for the Supreme Court and many Elon students to do the same: Come out of the closet and support the cause. Adam and Steve need all the support they can get.