December 25, 2005: Happy Holidays to all - especially to my fellow gay parents.

We are building new kinds of family, and showing the world new models of love and tolerance. Yay for us!

As a holiday present, here’s an editorial from USA Today. Although most of us would prefer that the mainstream would allow LGBT full and equal marriage laws, the growing acceptance of civil unions shows that people are becoming more fair-minded. Our time will come. The world only turns forward.

Cultural shifts can be hard to document. But sometimes they crystallize around an event. That seemed to be the case Wednesday as flamboyant rock star Elton John, 58, became one of the first people to take advantage of a new British law allowing same-sex couples to enter into civil unions.
John and longtime partner David Furnish, a 43-year-old Canadian, had their union made official at Windsor’s Guildhall — where Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles married in April. Any doubt about broad British acceptance of civil unions, which give the same legal rights as marriage does, was dispelled by London’s tabloid press, which prides itself on having a finger on the nation’s pulse.

With the headline “Elton’s ‘wedding’ sealed with a kiss,” the Daily Mail typified the warm coverage. Twenty years ago, such a celebration would have been unthinkable. Britain joins more than a dozen countries recognizing some form of civil union. Five, including Canada, have legalized gay marriage.

In the USA, the political debate over gay marriage — in which religious conservatives have pushed for a constitutional ban — has obscured a similar broad cultural shift.

A new Hollywood movie about two gay cowboys —Brokeback Mountain - might become a marker of that shift, if not as starkly as Sir Elton’s civil union. Brokeback Mountain, based on an Annie Proulx novella, has already garnered high praise from critics and seven Golden Globe nominations. In its limited release so far, it has been a box office hit. Its breakthrough appeal is that it is a poignant love story, one in which the characters happen to be gay. A similar trend has been seen on TV for the past few years.

In polls, most Americans oppose gay marriage but are far more accepting of civil unions, sometimes with a slim majority. State laws are all over the map. Massachusetts allows gay marriage. A handful of states accept or are considering allowing civil partnerships; others have moved in the opposite direction.

Last year, running for re-election, and with a keen awareness of the broader public mood, President Bush parted ways with the Republican platform: “I don’t think we should deny people rights to a civil union,” he said. Sir Elton would no doubt agree that such rights are part of what Philadelphia freedom is all about.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 25th, 2005 at 3:00 am and is filed under General, The Fight for Equal Marriage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.