Respect for Marriage Act

Good news. Same sex marriage is now protected.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/08/respect-for-marriage-act-house-vote/

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All thanks and glory to Justice Thomas on this one.

Without your raising the prospect of the court scrapping other rights including same-sex marriage and contraception after a concurring opinion to the decision to strike down Roe, there may not have been such focused (and bipartisan) motivation to light a fire under this bill.

Strong work, sir.

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Another blow to the American Taliban and a victory for humanity.

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I am very happy about the Defense of Marriage Act being passed, as there were any number of times when social attitudes toward homosexuality interfered with my paramedic work.

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One of the reasons this bill was bi-partisan was that it was going to pass no matter what, and the Republicans did not want any churches that did not comply to be removed from their tax-exempt status.

So they played along, compromised and made sure that threat of removing any church from tax-exempt status was nullified.

It is not a perfect bill that satisfies everyone, but it does remove any threat from any court in nullifying any marriage.

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Whenever we talk about same sex marriage, I have to bring up a very disturbing trend here in the U.S. that makes me grit my teeth.

There are pregnant women taking a dangerous drug called dexamethasone with the idea that it will prevent their unborn child from growing up to be a lesbian . . . and this drug is capable of causing birth defects. See below:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://gizmodo.com/a-drug-for-pregnant-women-that-prevents-lesbian-daughte-5577804&ved=2ahUKEwjyuZHN1Pb7AhXYTDABHfNfDfEQFnoECBQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1t3UoHiQVPDKcxsO3yNh2u

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Oh my, Kevin! This is horrible!

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I agree.

I see a lot of religion and a very subtle, under-handed homophobia in my nursing program.

In any case, the same people who push dexamethasone to prevent daughters from becoming lesbians are the same people who believe in an absolute prohibition on abortion, which would include birth defects from dexamethasone.

P.S. Note that dexamethasone is not believed to prevent boys from turning gay, as it supposedly only works to prevent lesbianism.

P.P.S. I understand much of the biochemistry of dexamethasone, and I don’t believe that it works to prevent women from being gay. The rationales behind this action are largely theoretical.

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As we don’t actually understand the nurture, nature, elements of gayness, I would say you are spot on. Science Science Aug 29, 2019 6:53 PM EDT ‘There is no gay gene. There is no straight gene.’ That, in no way implies that being gay is a choice or that we have the ability to choose. I have no idea at all why I am a hetrosexual or why I am attracted to certain types of women. I know what I like. It’s a preference. I do not see it as a choice and one would be hard tasked to try and change me. My best guess is that your assumption is spot on, and anyone using the drug for the purpose of suppressing lesbian behavior in a young girl is being abusive.

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If memory serves, The Onion posted a satire centred upon this topic.

Unfortunately, the only video reference I can find is via Reddit, and the video is marked “Private” on YouTube Wish I’d downloaded it years ago when I had the opportunity.

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Bloody fucking hell. So they go from a naturally occurring disorder, noticing that it is connected with altered development of hormonal and sex characteristics. They then see a suggested connection with lesbianism. And this is sexuality they themselves cannot understand. And something you don’t understand must be feared. And the fear of someone having sexual desires you yourself don’t have is so strong that you feel the need to suppress it to such an extent that you risk to harm your child. Un-fucking-believable.

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The only thing I disagree with you about is the point that it’s “unbelievable.”

I’ve started to really, really see how nasty and disgusting the religious right is.

There are gay conversion “camps” that parents send their children to in order to be beaten, sleep-deprived, and subjected to electrical shock in order to “fix” their homosexuality.

I heard something when I was a medic and bringing paperwork to the police station. A family was there because their son had been arrested for armed robbery and pistol-whipping a store clerk

The father said: “We should count our blessings, because at least he wasn’t arrested for being gay.”

That was something that was very chilling and creepy to me. It really said a lot about the family values.

So requiring a dangerous drug in pregnancy doesn’t surprise me.

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According to the Wikipedia entry for dexamethasone, It’s used in Bangladesh to make underage girls look older, so that they can be pressed into service in brothels.

Wonder how long it’ll take the usual suspects to apply this to their child brides?

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I think a major point of having a child bride is to indulge their pedophilia . . . so they probably won’t use it.

Well, you know what the Bible says… “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” The Catholic Chuch has a long history of torturing confessions out of people, so they can send them to heaven with clean souls. Aren’t the Protestants just following time-honored traditions? Torture them until they repent… That is the way of the Church. It has always been the way of the Church. 'Beat the hell out of them is not just an expression. It’s a way of life."

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I agree. Religion is a great tool to justify brutality.

The “unbelievable” part comes from the fact that I am conditioned to ground reality where I live (Norway), which is quite different from what you experience in the US. This being a mostly secular part of the world, the influence of religion to daily life is dwindling, and so is the (mostly) religious uptight resistance towards homosexuality. One further step against homophobia here is that “conversion therapy” (using psychotherapeutic, medical, alternative medicine or religiously based methods or similar systematic procedures, with the intention of influencing the person concerned to change, deny or suppress their sexual orientation) will now become illegal here (google-translated version here).

On a side note, the minister presenting the law in the link above had to resign just a few days ago, due to several cases of conflicts of interest (Culture minister resigns 'in shame' - Norway's News in English — www.newsinenglish.no).

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I have heard that Norway is progressive and idealistic. Your country is someplace I’d be tempted to move to.

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