Thursday, May 22, 2008

Ellen Degeneres vs. John McCain on Marriage Equality

Ellen Degeneres Confronts John McCain on Marriage Equality

While McCain talks about the importance of having access to legal agreements and insurance, Ellen takes him to task on the inequality she feels, being denied access to a legal union: "Women just got the right to vote in 1920, blacks didn't have the right to vote until 1870, and it just feels like there's this old way of thinking that we're not all the same.

"We are all the same people. All of us. You're no different than I am. Our love is the same."

"I've heard you articulate that position in a very eloquent fashion," McCain says. "We just have a disagreement, and...I, along with many, many others [wish you] every happiness."

"Thank you," Ellen responds. "So you'll walk me down the aisle? Is that what you said?"

"Touché," says McCain.

See the Video

1 comment:

James Diggs said...

I like Ellen a lot, I would love to meet her. I also think Ellen did make a compelling argument. I can certainly empathies with her argument that the law makes her (and many others) feel like second class citizens.

Here is the problem though as I see it. What Ellen is asking for is for the state to go beyond just declaring legal partnerships and declare gay unions as having the sacred status of “marriage”.

Now this is not to say that there can’t be compelling arguments for why gay unions could not be considered sacred and given the term marriage; I am just not sure that government is really able to mandate any union beyond just it’s legality and declare something “sacred” one way or the other. So perhaps government has over stepped its boundaries by ever declaring any legal union, even heterosexual, a marriage.

Perhaps the answer is for government to get out of the marriage game all together and declare both homosexual and heterosexual unions “civil unions” and let marriage be determined in the context of peoples various religious and cultural communities.

This way everyone would have the same legal rights and at the same time allow diverse communities to determine on their own what would constitute sacred and marriage beyond just a legal agreement and partnership; and no one could deny them that.

Just a thought, I am just trying to honestly listen and look for ways where we as a diverse people can show one another love and respect. I am not gay, so I would love to hear your opinion.

Peace,

James