The contest will be announced on September 29th to coincide with the beginning of Banned Books Week.
[Correction made to the date. I originally typed September 12th. As time travel hasn't been invented yet, that would be impossible, wouldn't it? However, the prize has something to to with time and space travel. Check the Contest! page for some more details.]
Not too long ago, my current state of residence made a rather troubling court decision. The most disturbing passage from the decision:
”In declaring that the State’s legitimate interests in fostering procreation and encouraging the traditional family structures in which children are born are related reasonably to the means employed by [the law banning same-sex marriage], our opinion should by no means be read to imply that the General Assembly may not grant and recognize for homosexual persons civil unions or the reasons,” wrote Harrell, who is retired from the court but participated in the decision because he was a member when the case was argued.
Now these arguments have been said before, and what I am about to retort with has as well, but I feel very strongly that it needs to be repeated yet again. If the main goal of marriage is procreation in a “traditional family structure” then the following needs to be observed:
Without observing these requirements, the decision holds no legitimacy other than to quell popular dissent against.
The Sioux City Journal had an editorial about Iowa’s recent brush with same sex marriage. Instead of procreation and “traditional family structure” this person used religious reasoning. He went so far as to call same sex marriage “a cruel impostor” without any real reasoning other than tradition. Perhaps this person wishes to return to other traditions like poll taxes and Jim Crow laws. This person, like so many others, forgets that we live in a society with a government that is neutral to religion. Despite his cry that it is neither irrational nor oppressive, it winds up being both. The marriage of two people of the same sex would have absolutely no effect on his marriage or life in general, but denying this right to others has an incredibly deleterious effect on a law abiding couple.
I think we’re in for a serious intensifying of these efforts. Spurred on by the recent deaths of Jerry Falwell and D. James Kennedy, the likes of James Dobson and Pat Robertson realize their generation is ending and succeeding generations are becoming more and more liberal. Constitutional amendments to enforce their ideals is the only way that they can be sure that they are carried into the future.
This decision makes it clear that we will need to tackle this issue through the legislature rather than through the courts. If you live in Maryland, be sure to write your state representatives.