A note on Gay Marriage
So- Apparently California overturned a statute that banned gay marriage. Let me take this opportunity to give one hearty “Fuck Yeah!” to the Californian Supreme Courts, thank you for not bending to fundie christianist idiocy.
I’d like to address the GLBT community now, I don’t know if there are any GLBT readers out there reading this, but I’d like to say that I think science and logic are on your side. Science has found some genetic basis for sexual preference, and logic tells me that — if it’s not your choice, then it shouldn’t be deemed “Wrong”. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m happy for you guys and girls, we in the skeptic community know that winning even a small victory against idiocy is satisfying, encouraging, and I just wanted to wish all the californian couples getting married in the near future good luck on their new, official, legal lives together.
Once again, Go Californian Supreme Court! May the FSM bless you and guide you by his noodley appendage!
Ramen!
Humbug! 
Agree with the post overall, keep fighting the good fight. Not with the whole “no choice = not wrong” logic though. They have also found genetic predispositions for being a murderer… Best not to try to get moral choices from science. Science is a tool for going where we want to go.
Yes, but when someone is found to have a profound disposition to murder, they don’t get sent to jail, if they can’t help it- it’s not so much wrong as unfortunate. It’s that kind of gray area that gets these courts all hung up. Whats more- the genetic bases they’ve found for murder have some shoddy evidence going for them at best, I’ve not seen a good study on it yet.
I’d also advise to be careful when you implicitly compare homosexuality and murder, I don’t think it was your intention, but that’s the kind of thing a fundie can take _way_ out into left field.
I guess I don’t completely disagree with your fundamental notion, that you can’t get moral choices from science- but that doesn’t mean (and I don’t think you meant to imply this anyway) that I need religion to make them for me. I think logic dictates that, in general, if someone had no choice in the matter, then we can’t call it wrong- and as long as noone is being hurt by it- which is the case with gay marriage- what’s the point in stopping it? Conversely, If we were to find strong evidence in support of a genetic disposition for murder, we can’t call it wrong, the person is as that point not much more than an automaton, blindly following the will of his genes, but we also can’t allow that practice to continue, so we compromise, and put him in a psychiatric hospital, where he can’t hurt anyone, but isn’t necessarily being punished.
I suppose it’s important to say also that we’re more than just our genes. Someone with a predisposition toward murder can still make a conscious choice not to kill people, and a gay person can still make a conscious choice to pretend to be a heterosexual. Neither subject would be happy, methinks- you can’t deny your basic instincts and be happy. But the predisposed murderer must, because the society he live in dictates that he must not run around killing people. Fortunately, society has found, or at least is beginning to find, that homosexuality isn’t hurting anyone.
In anycase, I’ve actually moved this blog to it’s own domain, it’s over at humbuggery.net now. Come visit!