I’M PRETTY SURE that the proposed anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment isn’t going anywhere, which is fine because it’s a dumb idea. But if you want to do your part to bury it, you might want to go here. (Yeah, these are the folks with the blogad on the right. I don’t generally offer what the magazine world calls “editorial support” to advertisers, but I’m sufficiently against this dumb amendment proposal to give its opposition a bit of a boost).
UPDATE: Clayton Cramer is savaging me on this issue. I do not, however, share his discomfort with homosexuality. As for the ad, well, it’s a typical political ad and some of his criticisms are valid, though others are rather forced. It’s true that the Constitution has been amended to do other things besides expand rights, for example, but the only contraction of rights — Prohibition — was swiftly repealed. Other amendments have either been on unrelated topics, or have expanded rights.
On the other hand, I’m not sure but I think Andrew Sullivan may be including me among those who are “complacent” about the amendment’s likelihood of passage. Maybe so, but I don’t think it has much chance. The goal, I think, is to make Kerry squirm — because he opposes gay marriage but will have trouble saying that before the Convention — and then have it die quietly. That’s no reason not to write your representatives and make your opposition known, though.
MORE: Spoons is anti-anti-gay marriage, but doesn’t like the campaign against the amendment. Or something like that. Read his post.
STILL MORE: Andrew Olmsted: “While I do not support the amendment, and in fact would vote in favor of legal gay marriage were it a ballot option, I think Spoons is in the right in this disagreement. . . . Shoot down the FMA because it’s a bad amendment. But don’t pretend that it’s bad simply because it is an amendment.” Fair enough, though amending the Constitution is like brain surgery — risky and permanent enough that proponents of the operation bear a heavy burden of proof that it’s really needed.