Will You Be My Brother?

You've heard the arguments from conservatives -- "Save traditional marriage," they scream. "Its all about the children!"

Or is it? Historians have been unearthing evidence that same sex relationships have been accepted by both the Church and State in western societies in times past. “Western family structures have been much more varied than many people today seem to realize and Western legal systems have in the past made provisions for a variety of household structures,” writes Allan Tulchin, a professor at Shippensburg University.

He has uncovered legal contracts called an "affrèrement," roughly translated as brotherment. The contracts functioned like a marriage contract, sworn before a notary and witnesses and joined the property of the "brothers." While the contracts may have been used between members of the same family in some cases, his research suggests that romantic relationships also were accepted.

While Tulchin's work seems to focus on the state's acceptance of these contracts, the late John Boswell's book, Same Sex Unions in Medieval Europe, suggests that the medieval Catholic Church also recognized these "brotherment" relationships. While critics counter with the equivalent of, "they're not gay, they're just really good friends," the bigger point is that the idea that western society has always been defined by one man, one woman, a litter of kids and a dog is pure fiction. Tulchin sums it up by explaining, "I suspect that some of these relationships were sexual, while others may not have been. It is impossible to prove either way and probably also somewhat irrelevant to understanding their way of thinking. They loved each other, and the community accepted that."

Nature abounds with any number of different groupings. From hives, packs and schools to animals that couple with a partner for life. There are animals that change sexes as well as gay animals. Its time that we recognize that humans are no different.

And for the record, I'd like a big, hunky "brother" who looks hot in tight leather shorts and knows how to use his "sword," kinda like the one pictured above. (Thanks to The Daily Slab [NSFW!] for the pic!)

'The Gays' Made Me Flunk The Bar!

The Gays are at it again... the scene? Massachusetts. In particular, the Bar Exam, where The Gays caused Stephen Dunne to fail the bar exam. Sinister, aren't we? Dunne missed the minimum passing score of 270 by less than 2 points -- scoring 268.866. So just how did The Gays commit their latest dastardly deed? Was it the swarm of drag queens heckling him during the exam? Gay mafiosos who secretly spritzed his answers with Abercrombie cologne? The Queer Eye guys refused to give him his makeover prior to the exam? No, the culprit is gay marriage. Not only is it destroying heterosexual marriage, but its stopping good Christians from being lawyers, too.

So I know what you're thinking... if some homosexuals were having one of our perverted marriage ceremonies in the middle of the hall where the bar exam was being conducted, I can see where that might be a distraction. I mean, who has time to wait in the buffet line and finish all the questions, right? There's your two points right there. But for those couple of wine spritzers and this guy would have sailed through.

Ok, here's the kicker. There wasn't actually a gay marriage going on during the middle exam. Rather, there was a question on the exam about gay marriage... in Massachusetts... where gay marriage is legal. Boy, I would have never have seen that one coming. According to Dunne, the question required him to "affirmatively accept, support and promote homosexual marriage and homosexual parenting." Yes, I can picture the question now:

"Do you affirmatively accept, support and promote homosexual marriage and parenting?"

Yes, I remember plenty of questions like that on the Bar.

Dunne alleges that the Bar Examiners violated his free exercise of religion, along with several other novel claims. Fortunately for straight America, Mr. Dunne has figured out our dastardly plot... and we would have gotten away with it too... if it wasn't for you meddling kids!

(via Pam's House Blend)

Sanctity of Marriage

Sometimes you just get a sense of why the right is so worked up about marriage... its special place in society... its sacred character. Nothing demonstrates that quite like a 40 year old track coach marrying his 16 year old student. Ah, North Carolina.

We musn't let the gays injure this sacred institution.

What's Good For The Goose...

Although I'm not completely convinced that we, as the gay community, should focus solely on the marriage issue, a group in Washington State has taken the gloves off and is going to put people to the test. The Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance, in response to the Washington Supreme Court's ruling that the state has a legitimate interest in limiting marriage because of procreation, has filed an initiative that would limit marriage to couples who are able to procreate and automatically annul marriages that do not result in children within three years. Absolutely brilliant! The group is also planning on sponsoring initiatives that would eliminate divorce and separation for married couples and another that would treat procreation as the equivalent of a marriage ceremony.

Of course, none of these initiatives have a chance of passage, assuming they make the ballot, I'd wager. But the point of the effort is to point out the hypocrisy of the whole "marriage is about procreation and children" argument. If that's true, then these measures are logical extensions of that justification and should be imposed, right? What's good for the gays should be applied to the rest of society. If its gonna be about "the children" then lets make it about the children.

(via Towleroad)

Life Imitating Art?

Holy Brokeback! OK, as much as I'd love to say that Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal were hooking up in real life, apparently that is too much to ask for. That said, life really does appear to be imitating art -- reports have Heath and Brokeback co-star Michelle Williams set to marry. Apparently this isn't too great a leap, as they apparently fell in love on the set back in 2005 and subsequently had a child. Still, kinda makes you wonder if Heath and Jake could really be special friends... At least we can fantasize.

Sacred Institution

Is it just me or does this weird everyone else out too? First of all, aside from the overall weirdness, you have to deal with the media outlets referring to them as TomKat. Ugh. Ok, it was kind of cute when they were talking about "Bennifer," lost its charm when they went on with "Brangelina" and the whole "TomKat" thing is reaching. I've seen a couple of blogs who refer to EVERY celebrity couple by combining their names. I'm not a big fan of the whole "jumping the shark" euphemism, but if there's a shark, they jumped it a long time ago. LET. IT. GO.

I'm sorry, this picture still freaks me out.