GAY MARRIAGE AND AMERICANISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY

ANTIQUE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE CASSONE
(NUPTIAL CHEST)

THE LEGALIZATION OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

HAS HELPED RE-DEFINE THE CONCEPT OF AMERICANISM

Many Americans have been forced to confront their personal views about homosexuality now that the Supreme Court has unilaterally endorsed same-sex marriage.  Although the decision was overwhelmingly applauded by Americans as always there is residual camp of mixed emotions.  For some Americans the Supreme Court decision heralded a much overdue confirmation of this countries interest in upholding the civil rights of its taxpaying citizens.  Some Americans may have felt the Supreme Court decision forced an issue upon them for which they had strong moral, ethical and faith-based reservations. There can be no doubt that this historic event represents a complete re-calibration of the course of American culture from its heterocentric traditions, now made official. For those who oppose gay marriage/unions the days following the decision have been spent managing their frustration and in some cases anger.  While it is difficult to understand why anyone would become angered when long-denied liberties are finally gifted to others whom they know have been oppressed we must nonetheless attempt to see the world through their lens lest we succumb to the same myopic phobias. Like so many elements of American culture same-sex marriage/union is yet another phenomenon most people have far too little time to give careful and insightful consideration. The kinds of opinions that can result from a poorly developed understanding of any issue especially realities of the human condition are rarely worthy of our consideration. However, the fact that they exist in quantities sufficient to cause great suffering to others forces us to take them seriously. The twenty-first century has turned many working Americans into virtual automatons focused on paying for our brief but costly existence in this world with little or no time to really contemplate what is happening around us and fewer time and energy to do anything about it.  We are often rudely awakened at unawares to the shrewd dictates of powerful entities who have nothing but money, time and energy to force their agendas upon us.  Rarely does a grass-roots movement like gay rights ever gain sufficient momentum to effect political change.  Who would have thought 35 years ago when the AIDS Pandemic began to decimate the gay population by the millions that they would rise up to replace their grim preparations for certain death with a fresh optimism opening with their newly earned right to legal marriage and civil unions? How magnificently life has changed its course!

As a writer I must pose the question: 

“Is America’s attention span long enough to properly comprehend the fundamental and immediate change that legal gay marriage/union brings to human civilization”?

I ask this important question because I understand how impotent a law can be if it is not understood and philosophically embraced by everyone and by mainstream culture. Take as an example Emaciation which became eroded by Jim-Crow and other antisocial, pathological socio-cultural and economic practices that evolved in direct reaction to the freedoms gifted to Black Americans because there was no real buy-in by the very ones who liberated them. 

Gay marriage/union dissenters are clearly on the wrong side of the track forged by recent trends of the past 4 decades leading to the legalization of same-sex marriage/union.   Everyone who had been paying attention to mainstream American culture in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century would say that it had been clear for many decades that gay marriage was on the main menu and its energy consistently gained positive momentum toward its goal. It can be said that America's Procrustean struggle accepting the civil rights of Black Americans has enabled them to be more receptive to the recent freedoms won by the LGBT community in Americas courts.  Yes, indeed, the LGBT community owes its smoother struggle and success to the pioneering efforts of the Black American community whether it admits it or not! Likewise the American Civil Rights Movement which has had an overwhelming focus on the issues of Black Americans and other ethnic groups must concede to embrace the LGBT community as family, elevating them within their ranks as brothers in the same cause of humanity!  This is not an idealistic fantasy it is a recipe for success having the strength to unify allies against the forces of bigotry and hate in America, a culture that is very much alive and well and one that always capitalizes on the division of its foes...

For my second question i ask: 

“Is it possible to bring those who oppose gay marriage/union into the spirit of the age”?  

Same-sex marriage/union dissenters have turned their minds away from the big picture of contemporary human civilization back to a time that is no longer culturally relevant and that trend is a troubling phenomenon around the globe. There is an inherent problem with the ideological regression to a time when people were denied the civil rights they enjoy today because one cannot exist in both of those worlds without resurrecting biases that have been long buried in the past.  How could one justify the energy spent on a journey to resurrect old evils when there are more than enough humanitarian causes such as homelessness, illiteracy and poverty to entertain and nourish the soul?  As a man of 53 years I have finally accepted and respect that men who I must respect because of their freedom of choice, can and will chose a path of evil over good if for no other good reason than because they can. In times of rapid social and technological progress it is typical to see romantic movements arise aiming to balance what they see as an imbalanced equation tipped by a social phenomenon they view as evil simply by turning history backwards.  Such Nipenthean solutions which can be thought of only as “Social Romanticism” or more accurately, "Retrosocial Romanticism"can only delay, (if they make any difference at all), a major systemic change that is already set on an irreversible course toward realization.   

IT WAS AN ITALIAN RENAISSANCE TRADITION FOR THE CASSONE TO PRESENTED AT THE TIME OF MARRIAGE

 Retrosocial Romanticism chooses to ignore and suppress important, mainstream movements in the evolution of human civilization which it deems to be evil in an attempt to create a Utopian reality where it's votaries can pretend to escape/avoid the influence of the "evil" word until they can either warm up to assimilating it's changes or resting change, stubbornly  perish in a self-imagined heroic act mortal rebellion. Flying the confederate flag 150 years after the Civil War was lost is a good example of Retrosocial Romanticism at its worst.  To many same-sex marriage/union dissenters it is not enough to hate or resent the legalization of gay marriage in America.  Human nature typically objectifies its anger through blaming setting out to punish the blamed.  I do not know why anyone would want to return to a time when other human beings were being  brutally oppressed other than to compensate their own insecurity but we must operate knowing there will be many cases in which members of the LGBT community are attacked as part of a backlash against their newly earned freedom. There are many historical precedents of this kind of reactionary social regression and it is always marketed as a benevolent and wholesome brand of conservative fundamentalism steeped in family and religious values.  Apparently,  these social malcontents have never considered whether murdering, discrimination against, and socially demoralizing their own brothers and sisters represents positive family values. Well, that is precisely why the laws have been changed and now comes the proving ground to test the ability of these laws to effectively protect those whom they were designed to protect.  It is idyllic and even naive to expect those who strongly oppose gay rights today to understand, respect and protect them.  There is and may always be an organized community of people who hate the LGBT community and blame them for the woes of the world.  As Black Americans have had to do so must the gay community accept this grim reality transforming it into a n incentive to overcome the odds. Within the big picture of civilized, rational thought neither gays or our legal system should be held to blame for the legalization of same-sex marriage/unions because the catalyst for this revolutionary socio-cultural phenomenon lay at the very soul of humanity.  This is why the American Civil War was fought so bitterly, it's passion to perpetuate or  to end one of the greatest evils of the world, human enslavement, was an evocation of the very soul of humanity.  We certainly cannot blame the human spirit for wanting to be free.  Even god knows that every man desires to be free. Because of incandescent events in human socio-cultural history such as the Emancipation of Black American slaves and the legal victories of the Civil Rights Movement we can truly say that some Americans know what it means to wrest their liberty away from tyrants to be free.  By virtue of their continual struggle these people should also understand that freedom is never free, it comes at a cost and that cost must be paid as long as freedom is enjoyed.

RICHLY CARED CASSONE REFLECTED THE WEALTH OF THE MARRIED FAMILY

On the global scene gay marriage has been legally established in many developed countries for over a decade.  But the world has been eyeing the Supreme Court as a if it is a beacon of universal freedom, such at least is its reputation even though it might be argued that America home of the free has been resting on its laurels.  Considering its diversity America is way overdue regarding the legalization of gay marriage, (as it was with slavery, women’s rights, labor laws and civil rights), compared to other countries who courageously pioneered those movements.  If one makes the argument that this is because America is a conservative nation then what metaphor does one evoke under the judicial robe of  national conservatism other than institutionally entrenched racism and bigotry. The queer doubleentendre that is implied and evoked by he utterance or idea of American branded conservatism speaks for itself! American liberalism has had and will continue to have a formidable battle against conservatism.  The conservative movement assumes everything is Okay, it has falsely made that assumption with Black American and Gay rights...   Gays cannot be blamed for exercising their right to fight within the egalitarian legal system of the United States to win their right to marriage.  Black Americans cannot be blamed for diligently struggling to win their natural freedoms, human and civil rights. Likewise, the Supreme Court cannot be blamed for upholding its duty to ensure that the rights of all American citizens gay, straight or otherwise are protected and that those protections do not include treading upon the natural rights of others.  This leaves the blame, (if any blame can be made), on the American social structure for selling the flawed belief that only heterosexual people are worthy to enjoy legal marriage. 

CASSONE HELD VALUABLE TREASURES OWNED BY THE MARRIED COUPLE

Civil Rights Leaders have avoided the obvious relationship between the Gay Movement and the Civil Rights Movement for decades but the two are intimately intertwined.  The same socio-cultural barriers have haunted both camps yet the voracious with which western culture has demonized homosexuality over the past two-thousand years has rendered it philosophically impossible for the leaders of The Civil Rights Movement, (entrenched in judo 'Christian dogma), to acknowledge the clear brotherhood they share. To the extent that those mid-twentieth-century mistakes have been rectified by the Supreme Court ruling in 2015 both camps may now draw sighs of relief.  I like to marvel at the idea of same-sex marriage/union as an utterly unique and revolutionary event in human history.  As far as we know in the roughly 100,000 years that human beings have existed on this planet the issue of gay marriage has never been formally addressed by any civilization to the extent that it was codified as a protected right within their laws.  While The United States of America basically pioneered one of the first successful large-scale modern experiments with egalitarian freedom it has consistently failed thereafter to take the lead in many critical issues of basic human and civil rights, resting or perhaps sleeping on its laurels/morals.  By establishing a unilateral network of Retrosocial and Cultural Romanticism on July 4, 1776 America using media, militia and malice to sell the illusion of its sanctity successfully suppressed criticisms for over two centuries while it engineered and institutionalized an iron-clad system of racism against many ethnic groups contributing to its prosperity with whom that prosperity was not shared.  The American way became the patented hallmark for a style of racism and bigotry hidden beneath a pall of Americanisms which blatantly ignored racial, sexual and ethnic diversity and equality.  This engine of inequality is the product of a powerful social overlay whose foundation has been a hateful philosophy manufactured to support racism justified as divine right but masquerading as Christian fundamentalism.  To this extent, slavery, racism, sexism and the like have been perpetually justified and legally enforced by the laws of these United States.  After nearly 100 years of dormancy following the emancipation of Black American slaves the momentum of unresolved issues began to grow during the mid-twentieth century civil rights movement. Although suppressed beneath the issues of Black American freedoms the long burning questions of the sexual revolution including same-sex unions/marriage poised themselves for eminent discussion but were ignored.  A later iteration of national guilt for ignoring gay rights manifested in the weird proclamation marketed as, "Don’t ask don’t tell". This latent movement was a clear effort to suppress the incendiary issue of gaiety beneath a Nipenthean stupor.  There would have been no logical reason to ask Americans to suppress their feelings about homosexuality it if were not already an appetitive entrée on the social menu of the national mood.  Don't ask don’t tell was all about appeasement of the national mood!  Don’t ask don’t tell, make no mistake, was also a multimedia scheme designed to prepare America for the eventuality of same sex marriage sanctioned by the federal government. Fortunately its clumsy method of introduction did not plunge same-sex marriage and gay rights in general into a chasm of limbo.  The LGBT community was rightfully angered by its crudeness and this anger is really what launched a full-scale movement to get it right by going for nothing less than 100%. Ask or don't ask as you like but don't ask or expect me not to tell and if I do as a tax ping American citizen let the world know you've got my back!

Can we blame Clinton and the American government for managing gay rights with a clumsy agenda?  Not really since those issues had historically been considered absolutely untouchable and irrelevant.  Neither should we place fresh laurels upon their brows for paying on a long overdue balance. They acted because they were pushed by activists and by a shift in human cultural evolution so place that gilded diadem upon the brows of the common man! Agendas can be crafted to cater or to ignore an issue regardless of its importance.  It is arguable that it is equally problematic to bother recognizing an issue under an exclusive agenda but weaken it's power by dancing around the fundamental elements that give life to it.  Going perpetually around the mulberry bush ultimately causes the soul of the argument to seem virtually invisible.  In other words, if it was always OK to be gay as long as you didn’t admit it publicly its social culpability could not be rationalized least  of all condoned under the condition of sworn secrecy.  How could something be good only under the condition  that nobody knew it existed? This begs the question, “Why or how could it ever be acceptable  to pretend to be something you are not, (outside of the CIA), when everyone else knows you are pretending?  I know that “Don’t ask don’t tell” was theoretically designed to be a preparatory measure slowly warming America up to the reality that gay rights and marriage were a thing of the very near future.  I think the message was deliberately very shady, scary even foreboding.  I think that is why the LGBT community wrestled down this clumsy lead and pushed with all its might to open the door of freedom the right way honestly earning it at the end of a long and difficult fight.  People have a way of resenting something when they feel it has been sneaked into being behind their backs.  People respect a man who honestly states his intentions at the front door rather than resorting to barn-side circus antics to bamboozle them with see-through magic tricks. The law has fortunately always been clear even though it was never applied which is why the Supreme Court was compelled to legalize gay rights and same-sex marriage/unions.  The social mood of America has been allowed to founder precariously between a cacophony of irrelevant religious arguments which should have had no bearing in a country that only pretends to separate church from state if the state had actually bothered to live up to its claims.  The LGBT community has had to battle heterocentric cultural traditions assumed to unequivocally define the institution of marriage manhood, womanhood and Americanism in general redefining that spurious model heretofore epitomized as the order of all things. This is because America has created a socially bigoted culture and is now being forced to extricate itself from the ruins of a nearly failed democracy.  America it appears is being redefined again, its corrupt carcass is being ground down to a fine powder and the liquid vehicle of diversity is being added to give it neo-plasticity so that future generations can refashion it into something beautiful!  I hate to draw upon the image of the cracked liberty bell as a metaphor for a new reconstruction of American values.  But the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have been like indomitable foundries melting every atom of that bronzed monolith of failed egalitarianism.  Now we await the fashioning of a proper mold to pour our molten freedoms into, casting a culturally relevant icon that America might again have a true symbol of liberty!

FIN

Written by Bigdaddy Blues