A Stitch in Haste

I hope to have a major post on the California gay marriage ruling by the end of the day.

In the meantime, you'll have to settle for this comment left elsewhere, in response to this article:

Wait, I have my very own anonymous, infantile defamer-troll on Hit & Run? Cool. Can't be mocked if you're not read, right?

In any case, some thoughts —

1. Chapman writes:

"But all of a sudden, the justices have discovered that their state constitution not only allows but requires that marriage include homosexual couples"

Let's keep in mind that — unlike legislatures, bureaucracies and majoritarian mobs — courts cannot, upon their own initiative, do anything. A lawsuit was filed (several in fact), the court resolved them. That's about as far from being "activist" as one can get. (Indeed, the majority unambiguously reiterated the court's prior ruling that activist San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom was flat-out wrong to issue SSM licenses and that those gay marriages remain null and void.)

2. The notion that a group suffering from patent discrimination should "just wait a generation or two" is all well and good when you're not part of that group. I would, qua libertarian, posit that no one ever owes anybody, even their fellow victims (let alone their oppressors) a duty to "grin and bear it." To assert that doing so would be smart politics is one thing; to assert that it's somehow the moral high ground is absurd.

3. Once again we see (not from Chapman but from commenters here and elsewhere) the shameful thesis (paraphrased) that:

Since marriage licenses are not a legitimate function of government, libertarians should embrace irrational and animus-inspired discrimination against an insular minority because that way at least the gays can't get married — and anything that denies a marriage license to anyone is a good thing.

If that's the current pinnacle of libertarian "equal protection" theory, then I'm joining the Workers World Party.

Let the record reflect that I have never suggested, contra my troll, that "gay Marriage is the most important libertarian issue." Indeed, I am beginning to wonder whether anti-gay bigotry is close to being eclipsed by anti-atheist bigotry as the single worst anti-libertarian policy umbrella in America.