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A wire report from Los Angeles, California, a couple of weeks ago
said that a number of gay and lesbian couples have tied the knot as
a result of the historic ruling by the California Supreme Court
legalizing same sex marriage.
California is the second state in the US, after
Massachusetts, to legalize same sex marriage. And San Francisco is
the most gay-friendly city in the US.
A study conducted by the University of
California Los Angeles (UCLA) shows that some 51,000 of the
estimated 102,000 same sex couples living in California are expected
to marry over the next three years with another 70,000 couples from
other states to have their wedding in California.
A recent poll showed that 52 percent of
Californians now support homosexual marriage compared to 41 who
oppose it.
The decision of California’s high tribunal,
which took effect last June 16, 2008, capped a long-running legal
battle that started in 2000 when California voters approved a law
specifically declaring that only a marriage between a man and a
woman could be legally recognized.
Protected right
But in its decision, the court said that
marriage is a basic civil right that applies to everyone, including
those belonging to the third sex. It said that like race and gender,
sexual preference of a person is a protected right.
However, a proposed constitutional amendment
that would override the court’s decision will be submitted to
California voters along with the national elections in November this
year.
Both Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, the
presumptive presidential candidates of their respective parties,
have opposed same sex marriage but they also do not want a
constitutional ban on such a union.
The Roman Catholic Church has vigorously opposed
such a union based on the Vatican’s unequivocal stance that
marriage is a unique relationship between a man and a woman whose
goal is to nurture and support a new life.
Not in the Philippines
Same sex marriage will never prosper in the
Philippines for two reasons: one because of the strong Catholic
upbringing of most Filipinos, and two, because Filipino homosexuals
are far from united.
No politician would dare propose a legislation
that would legalize this kind of marriage simply because this is
anathema to the accepted norms and time-tested values of the
Filipino people.
In the May 2007 elections, the Ang Ladlad,
headed by Danton Remoto tried but failed get accreditation as a
party-list group because it was unable to prove that it was a
nationwide organization of the country’s lesbians, gays, bisexuals
and transgenders.
Remoto, a professor at the Ateneo de Manila
University, said that they sought representation in Congress because
they want an end to discrimination against their members.
But unlike in California and other American
states, homosexuals here cannot seem to put up a unified front.
Majority of them are closet gays and those who have come out in the
open usually fought among each other.
$8 billion for mutts
Some are saying that same sex marriage is an
outrageous phenomenon of our times. But here is a more outrageous
piece of news.
The late American hotelier and real estate
magnate Leona Helmsley has willed her entire trust, valued at $5
billion to $8 billion, an amount representing all her estate,
including the Empire State building in New York, for the care and
welfare of dogs.
The eccentric and bitchy (that probably explains
her queer attachment to dogs) also left $12 million in her will to
her dog, Trouble.
Instead of alleviating the conditions of
millions who die of hunger and disease in Sudan, Somalia other
countries in Africa and Asia, Helmsley decided to leave her vast
wealth to the care of dogs.
This story reminded me of an old anecdote about
a wealthy matron who wanted her dog, her lifetime companion, to be
baptized. The matron brought her dog to a priest and asked that it
be baptized.
Of course, the priest was aghast. How can a dog
be baptized, the priest told the matron. But the matron insisted.
“Father, I want my dog to have a name because when I die, she will
be my sole heir,” the matron said.
The priest would not want anymore of the
matron’s pleadings. So, he drove her away. But before leaving, the
matron said: “If that’s the case, Father, I will just bring my
dog to a temple and have her baptized there. And I would give the P5
million that I would like to donate to your church to the Buddhist
monk.”
After hearing of the P5 million donation, the
priest grabbed the dog from the matron and said: “Come here, come
here, let’s baptize your dog. Why didn’t you tell me right away
that your dog is a Roman Catholic.”
opinion@manilatimes.net
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