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Dugg on Digg: CNN asks You tube to pull the orginal Bill Maher statement on Ken Mehlman
Although I don’t agree with Bill Maher(or anyone for that matter) outing people that haven’t decided for themselves to come out as being gay. Attempting to rewrite history is bad too. In this day and age it’s impossible, whether you like it or not, to erase something once it is out in the open. All that you end up doing is drawing more attention to it and causing a bigger brouhaha than you would have had before.

In other news Ken Mehlman will be stepping down as RNC Chairman in January as was announced today.

One thing I am seriously getting really sick and tired of hearing is how gay marriage will destroy the institution of marriage and the family. Please allow me a few minutes to set some of the record “straight,” so to speak. It’s interesting that the argument is used that two men or two women wanting to spend their lives together could possibly lead to destruction. Especially when you consider that among the men and women that already enjoy the privilege of marriage have done such a good job of destroying families as it is. I suppose it is partially based on the stigma that homosexual have indiscriminate sex with anyone and everyone. But who says that we are the only ones acting that way.

According the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics has compiled a report for 2002-2004 that details the number of of births, deaths, marriages, divorces, etc in the US. The results are shocking: in 2004* there were 7.8 Million and 3.7 Million divorces, this means that nearly half(47%) of the marriages essentially didn’t last. It also could be said that potentially 3.7 Million families were destroyed and who knows how many children were affected by that destruction. I don’t deny that marriage is important, in fact I believe that marriage and the commitment that should go with it are very important. The provide a stabilizing and supportive environment for both the individuals involved enabling both to be much better together than apart….at least in theory.

Before I go on I want to emphasis that I want I am about to say I do not think applies to most people, but it does exist and should be considered.

Unfortunately in today’s society some are marriages of convenience, marriages of immigration, marriages of non-existence(IE one or both spouses do not necessarily stay committed to each-other) and marriages of money. Take a look at the weekly or daily news and the celebrity marriages that last for a year or two. And before the ink is dry in the divorce/annulment they are set to be married to someone else. How many people do you know that have been married 2, 3, 4 or even more times? Scarier question, are they proud of it?

Now one of the main stigma’s attached to homosexuality is that all of us have indiscriminate sex with everyone else, I’ve even heard that we all participate in orgies. Nothing could be further from the truth in my opinion. Yes there are those that do have indiscriminate sex, there are others that prefer orgies/groups. Still there are plenty of others that are only interested in a relationship with their partner and only their partner. I think the crux of the matter is that we are a lot more honest about it to ourselves and everyone else.

Think about it for a bit, there are plenty of straight people that I know that go out to the bars every night hoping to get “laid” at least until they are married. Of course others continue even after they are married, just look at the the Sopranos most of the lead characters in that show have a mistress on the side. How many marriages are ended each year because of this type of infidelity? It’s definitely seems to me that it is like “The pot calling the kettle black.”

At the very least I hope that this causes people to think or at least ponder what I have said and evaluate it before automatically jumping to a conclusion because it is what they were taught. Also please visit Pete Ashdown’s blog entry for a well written piece on the marriage amend ment debate. He is currently running in Utah for the US Senate where I personally hope that he will oust Senator Orrin Hatch from office.

* DISCLAMER: I absolutely despise using statistics as I believe they are fundamentally flawed. I believe that at least half of all statistics are made up on the spot and the other half are tailored to show results that are favorable to the one using them. Unfortunately in this case I needed to use them for my argument so take it with a grain of salt and draw your own conclusions.

I went to Utah Gay Pride 2006 this year and took my camera. Unfortunately….or fortunately I think I went a bit overboard. I filled all of my CF cards and just barely lasted through the parade. Sorry no pictures from the Pride Festival itself. The entire album is here and below are a few photos from the crowd favorites: