I guess it won't be long now before the gay marriage issue will figure prominently as a plot device in the HBO series Big Love, a show about a polygamist Mormon family which is produced by Tom Hanks. Hanks has come out swinging in response to the recent Proposition 8 which outlawed gay marriage in California.
“The truth is this [show, "Big Love,"] takes place in Utah, the truth is these people are some bizarre offshoot of the Mormon Church, and the truth is a lot of Mormons gave a lot of money to the church to make Prop-8 happen,” he told Tarts. “There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American, and I am one of them. I do not like to see any discrimination codified on any piece of paper, any of the 50 states in America, but here’s what happens now. A little bit of light can be shed, and people can see who’s responsible, and that can motivate the next go around of our self correcting Constitution, and hopefully we can move forward instead of backwards. So let’s have faith in not only the American, but Californian, constitutional process.”
Which, it seems natural that the show broach the subject matter, and that's fine as long as it does it in a thoughtful, non-condescending way, without becoming preachy about it. It might actually make for some interesting television if, for example, one of the three wives portrayed on the show had a gay brother-or if she herself were gay. If the husband turns out to have been a Proposition 8 supporter, or even donated money to the cause, it could turn out to be even more interesting.
One things for sure, under the circumstances in which the polygamist husband lives his life, he damn sure wouldn't want to end up on this map.
6 comments:
Hanks is a bit too woo-woo for my tastes but the way he was quoted out of context by the religious right is just as nuts. Your post was the first where I read the whole of his opposition to Prop 8 and its Mormon backers and it sound fairly sane.
Actually, Patrick, I don't think the government has any business being involved in marriage on any level, other than as a fair arbitrator in contract disputes, and that should be the domain of the states. In fact, states should all handle their own marriage laws, and leave the feds out of it.
So while I agree with Hanks when it comes to codifying discrimination, it's still not all that cut and dried for me either. Of course, I never particularly cared for legislation that gave special tax breaks or privileges to families with children. I see the point behind it, but as far as I'm concerned single people pay too much in taxes too, why should somebody rate a special privilege just because they have kids. It's not like somebody put a gun to their heads and forced them to-well, in most cases anyway.
Plus on top of that, if you are single with no kids, you pay every bit as much in property and state and local taxes that go to support schools as people with kids, and actually you probably pay more, so it's even more unfair. But that's what happens when the government gets involved in marriage and family matters. Somebody is sure to get screwed.
I agree government should not be involved in "holy" matrimony.
Further, if your first stop in a divorce was the church instead of court, judicial costs for all of us would go down.
I completely missed the non-Californian Mormon influence on Prop 8 til I met an ex-Mormon who was livid over the whole thing.
I guess that's the thing that gets me too about all these state ballot initiatives, on both sides. People outside the states in question have no more business being involved in it, especially from a financial standpoint, than a foreign national has in donating money in a presidential election.
You should have no more wives than you can afford.
I think someone's personal rights, is not a subject that is legit for referendum. People's rights are not a majority rule issue.
The genie is out of the box on gay marriage.
Ren-
HaHaHaHa it's "out of the box" all right, but that's the first time I've ever heard them called "genies".
I'm surprised you didn't have a comment on the latest Hamas post.
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