Too Many Magic-Based Puns to Choose From!

Yes, Dumbledore has been outed by JK Rowling as having been in love with his arch-rival Grindlewald. Credit to Sarah, she called it whilst reading Deathly Hallows (goes to show you there's some legitimacy to homoerotic sub-text, eh, Pree?).

Of course, people are losing their shit over it, proving once again how homophobia is, as Christopher J Priest put it, the last safe bigotry.

This leads into my utter disappointment with Kevin Rudd's position on gay marriage. Kevin, I had such high hopes for you! When you were Shadow Foreign Minister, you spoke with such eloquence and intelligence, such insight and sensitivity. But now you're doing absolutely everything you can to insure you gain victory against Howard and his cronies you're slowly but surely transforming into them. It's not a pretty sight.

I can't think of any objection to homosexuality and the recognition of gay marriage that isn't founded in a religious viewpoint (other than one that stems from simple gay panic). Certainly, we're not guaranteed a seperation of church and state in our constitution (as far as I'm aware. Maybe I'm confusing it for freedom of speech), but I don't see the legitimacy in allowing religious dogma to motivate political policy.

To quote from the previously mentioned Priest article (who is himself a Christian minister);

"I presume this to be a mystery, if not exactly a paradox, that God condemns homosexuality while, at the same time, creating homosexuals. To suggest someone can be born into an inescapable sin is to deny the power of the cross. To suggest that a person must war against their own nature and embrace shame and scorn just to make it into heaven and be embraced by a loving God is paralyzingly stupid. In that context, making criminals of homosexuals seems wrongheaded."

Beyond religion, is there any kind of legitimate argument for legislating against the homosexual community? Is it 'the protection of the family'? I didn't realise 'the family' was such a fragile constitution it could be so easily destroyed. Is it because 'next thing you know people will be marrying dogs! Or kids!!" My response to that? What heinously stupid bullshit! I mean, there's no arguing against that kind of sheer idiocy, other than "Shut up, dumb face"!

To stand against gay marriage strikes me as being just the same as those who outlawed interracial marriage in decades past. We can only hope that, in time to come, homophobia is seen as being just as virulent as the racist mentality behind that out-dated law.

Huh. I didn't expect to start off discussing Dumbledore and end up on politics and religion. But there you have it.