Posts tagged “social issues”

I constructed a hypothetical dialogue with Rick Santorum using his actual public statements, walking through his positions on gay marriage. His arguments ultimately contradict themselves: he claims to support equality while opposing gay sex, civil unions, and any legal recognition of same-sex relationships.

The recent string of gay teen suicides is heartbreaking, but it's not a sudden surge. Three gay teenagers kill themselves every day in America. For every name you've heard this week, there are eighteen more you haven't. This is an ongoing crisis, not a news cycle.

I'm passionately against Prop 8, but we lost a fair election. Protesting or pursuing legal challenges feels undemocratic and counterproductive. The real problem is older voters, and they're dying. We should put marriage equality back on the ballot in 2010. We will win eventually.

I'm building a FAQ for well-meaning straight people who have questions about gay people but are too embarrassed to ask. I need your help: what questions should I include? Submit via comments or email, anonymously if you prefer.

The US healthcare system is broken and inefficient, but the "Americans have no healthcare" argument is oversimplified. The US spends more on healthcare as a percentage of GDP than almost any other nation, and extensive programs cover the elderly, poor, and veterans. The reality is more nuanced than the critics suggest.

I have mixed feelings about the Harvey Milk LGBTQ school. It treats symptoms rather than the real problem: American high school culture's brutal treatment of anyone different. But since fixing that culture is nearly impossible, I'll take what I can get. At least some kids will be safe.

Britain has up to 1.1 million paedophiles, and we can't jail them all. Criminalisation and persecution drive the problem underground. Treatment works better than prison, as one clinic's 80% success rate showed before hysteria shut it down. This is majority persecution of a minority, nothing more.

AlterNet has a brilliant piece arguing school shootings are a white America problem that white America ignores. The drug statistics alone are staggering and somehow more darkly funny than anything the Onion published this month.