“Humanity, a Journal of Social Commentary”
Gay Marriage is a Human Rights Issue
A blog entry by an anonymous man publishing in an on-line social commentary web-site called “Humanity, a Journal of Social Commentary. Just who he is is not important, or at least I am saying that it is not important in spite of what you might think about writers and authors and gender and ethnicity or race or faith or belief or economic status or region of habitude or time of day or whether or not if he or she or it is eating and why cannot the author or the writer or the blogger or the whatever you have in your idiolect to call what he or she or it is or they are and why cannot one be they if I am we he can be they, no? Whatever, however, whenever, wherever. What the f@#$ could knowing that it is fall and the leaves are visible falling in the wind the day he wrote this tell you about this piece, and whether or not the me who is writing here, not the real world person who is my author writer not exactly the same persona that is he who is the editor . . .
March 17th, 20xx. Gay Rights are Human Rights.
Human Rights are unalienable and inviolable irrespective of what the society does in violence or by law against the free exercise of a person’s or a people’s Human Rights. Human Rights are everyone’s birthright whether the laws of the society support them or not, whether the backwardness of religion or theological constructs impede the full exercise and/or recognition of these Basic Human Rights.
Gay Marriage stands at the forefront of what we say about ourselves with relation to a person and his or her personhood. There is a logic to what we say irrespective of whether or not we perceive this logic, or have or have not considered it before hand. Gay Marriage has something to teach us about our socio-political philosophy of individualism and/or individuality. What are the limits of this individuality or philosophy of individualism.
Any intelligent discussion of Gay Marriage will inevitably have to discuss whether or not a political philosophy of individualism is viable in face of staunch opposition to the free exercise of a person’s basic human rights, or if our way of defining it or explaining it is adequate to the task of defending the basic human rights of all persons in as much as we would have to defend each person. Whether how we define this individuality and/or individualism in our society has very much to say on the issue of Basic Human Rights, we will see, but only if we remain literate enough and educated enough, with a sufficient awareness of our history. What can we articulate and defend without hypocrisy?
I hold what I have said herein about Gay Marriage to be basic human truths, and self-evident ones. The Basic Human Rights of gay couples and their civil rights are not debatable points–human rights and civil rights never are. Moreover, we cannot pretend to be a free and democratic society while we remain stuck in an anti-democratic framing of marriage–that is, of what it is, and who gets permission to enter the social institution.
It is nice to know that there are persons—that there is a person who so thoughtfully examines issues that face us as a society and have an impact on how we live as individuals and how we live socially, together; no? Whether you do or do not think so is no never mind to me; I am not here to garner consensus in order to pretend that I know what I think I believe.
The Falling Leaf Review 