![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
My mother on gay marriage
So I showed her this link that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fearsclave thoughtfully provided.
She threw a fit, naturally. "Why don't they just abolish all institutions entirely, then?" she pontificated sarcastically. "Start with a clean slate? Clearly tradition means nothing to these people." (My mother likes demonstrative pronouns: it helps her to distance herself from stuff she finds distasteful)
I actually made some headway in this conversation. Namely, I got her to agree with me that the State needs to recognise homosexual unions.
Not marriage, which is religious. She believes that religious ceremonies are sacrosanct and part of a long standing tradition and should not be meddled with. My mother is something of a traditionalist/conformist/revisionist type.
However, when I explained that that was why we have a division of Church and State, she warmed to me. I explained that in the US (this was some tricky manoeuvering on my part, because she hates the US so much that if I use them in an argument she'll automatically take the opposing viewpoint) they were seeking to prevent gay marriage on *moral* grounds, when in fact the State has "no place in the bedrooms of the nation" (another tricky manoeuver: quote Pierre Trudeau, whom she quite liked because she has a thing for charismatic politicians no matter what their leanings).
I argued that the US was defining gays as "inferior" people, from a social and moral standpoint, much like they had defined black people as inferior fifty years ago. While my mother is as racist as she is homophobic, she *does* understand the concept of equality, and she does believe in the equal treatment of human beings. She also massively objected to Bush's use of the word "sinners" in his speech, which for her is also part of that sacrosanct tradition that Bush has sullied by using it for his own purposes.
The conclusion? I finally found a use for Bush: using him as a weapon to fight my mother's prejudices.
Ironic, no?
fearsclave thoughtfully provided.She threw a fit, naturally. "Why don't they just abolish all institutions entirely, then?" she pontificated sarcastically. "Start with a clean slate? Clearly tradition means nothing to these people." (My mother likes demonstrative pronouns: it helps her to distance herself from stuff she finds distasteful)
I actually made some headway in this conversation. Namely, I got her to agree with me that the State needs to recognise homosexual unions.
Not marriage, which is religious. She believes that religious ceremonies are sacrosanct and part of a long standing tradition and should not be meddled with. My mother is something of a traditionalist/conformist/revisionist type.
However, when I explained that that was why we have a division of Church and State, she warmed to me. I explained that in the US (this was some tricky manoeuvering on my part, because she hates the US so much that if I use them in an argument she'll automatically take the opposing viewpoint) they were seeking to prevent gay marriage on *moral* grounds, when in fact the State has "no place in the bedrooms of the nation" (another tricky manoeuver: quote Pierre Trudeau, whom she quite liked because she has a thing for charismatic politicians no matter what their leanings).
I argued that the US was defining gays as "inferior" people, from a social and moral standpoint, much like they had defined black people as inferior fifty years ago. While my mother is as racist as she is homophobic, she *does* understand the concept of equality, and she does believe in the equal treatment of human beings. She also massively objected to Bush's use of the word "sinners" in his speech, which for her is also part of that sacrosanct tradition that Bush has sullied by using it for his own purposes.
The conclusion? I finally found a use for Bush: using him as a weapon to fight my mother's prejudices.
Ironic, no?
no subject
no subject
Can you imagine? I'm using him as a weapon against the very things he holds so dear to his heart.
The irony is just delicious. *g*
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Thank you. It was a moment of inspiration, dare I say epiphany. *g*
It never occurred to me before that by using the argument that the United States government was officially homophobic that I could actually bring my mother further to our side of the cause.
I'm still a bit in awe of my own reasoning powers. *evil grin*
See you tomorrow! (Well, today, really)
no subject
The funniest thing was that while I was reading it I had a picture of you and your mother dressed up in Ancient Greek khitons, and you had a big false Socrates beard on while you were leading your mother around in a garden and demolishing her arguments just as Socrates used to.