"This is not a law of intolerance"

Taft signs measure banning same-sex marriage

I'm so glad that Ohio's legislators and administrators are looking out for my best interests. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't even know about some of the perils that face me every day. I'll certainly sleep better tonight knowing that the sanctity of marriage has been successfully defended here in Ohio.

I'm also glad to know that this isn't a law of intolerance. If Governor Taft hadn't said that, I can see how there may have been some confusion. Thanks for clearing that up, Bob.

Call me crazy, but when a law is signed into action whose sole purpose clearly is to marginalize a certain segment of the population, yep, my first thought is that it may be a law of intolerance. If Mr. Taft hadn't clearly stated otherwise, I may have had some not-so-nice thoughts about our state's esteemed elected officials.

Of course, he neglected to mention exactly how it isn't a law of intolerance. All that really seems clear is that gay marriage won't be recognized in Ohio under any circumstances. Nope, I sure can't see any discrimination or--whoops--intolerance inherent in that.

Sarcasm aside (for the moment), this is a giant step backwards, and it's overkill at that. Ohio already had a law on the books that gay couples couldn't marry in Ohio. Now their unions won't even be recognized if they managed to have it done in one of the few places that will actually do it. I suppose if we're going to legislate bigotry, we might as well be thorough about it: we'd hate to see anyone slip through the cracks.

I wonder how much laughter took place while this bill was under debate. I know personally I can't even consider the term "sanctity of marriage" without a certain degree of amusement. With high divorce rates, shows like "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?", and the widespread availability of pornography and sexually related material both online and off, it's clear that the institution of marriage is no longer what it once was. Just to be clear, I'm not demonizing any of these things; I'm just pointing out that they exist in our society, and all suggest in their own way that marriage is not nearly the sacred thing that so many people want to make it out to be.

I can only hope that someday this law will go away, as have so many other laws that mandated discrimination and marginalized people that only wanted to be treated with the equality that's supposedly a hallmark of our nation. In the meantime, it appears we all have to suffer the leadership of people who are too small-minded to see that this truly is "a law of intolerance."