In response to Judge Friedman's ruling last Friday that voided Michigan's homophobic ban on same-sex marriage, best selling author Mitch Albom asks in The Detroit Free Press if we're better off for the ruling.
It's an astonishing question, but I'm not surprised that a rich, married white man asks it, because he has no idea what it's like to be a second-class citizen. He's wealthy and famous, his books have sold in the tens of millions of copies and he's a writing superstar.
Yes, Mitch, we're better off. The state presented a pathetically juvenile and bigoted case and thanks to the judge's thoughtful and rigorous decision, anti-equality prejudice, bigotry and shoddy research were exposed.
Yes, Mitch, we're better off. Michigan makes so much bad news for any number of problems like Detroit's decay and our unemployment figures; it's fantastic to see our state hailed for joining the march to freedom for gays and lesbians.
Yes, Mitch, we're better off, because every gay man and lesbian in the state could feel, however briefly, that they were no longer second-class citizens whose relationships don't count in the eyes of the law.
I'm sorry you don't see that and didn't use your column to do more than predict that gay people would end up divorcing as frequently as straight people do, or assume that America's general interest in marriage will decline to levels seen in France or Netherlands.
I'm also sorry that you can write something like this without compunction: "In the end, folks just don't want to feel threatened or bullied. Many gays have long felt bullied by society; many heterosexuals now feel bullied by a new ideology."
Seriously? How can you even seem to buy into the false notion that people seeking equal protection under the law is a "bullying ideology"?