everyone needs to read this.

Last week, Salon interviewed gay Catholic Mexican-American (what a bio!) author Richard Rodriguez about Proposition 8. His response was breathtaking. I know I'm gushing, but his views on anti-gay sentiments are both innovative and refreshing. Rather than attribute the resistance to simple blind hatred, which isn't the best way to get religious people to "see the light", he actually analyzes why Christians (et al.) feel so threatened by gay marriage. I love it. Read it. Forward it to everyone you know. It is so, so important to women and gays and those who claim both labels and children and all of humanity.

Excerpts:

"The possibility that a whole new generation of American males is being raised by women without men is very challenging for the churches. I think they want to reassert some sort of male authority over the order of things. I think the pro-Proposition 8 movement was really galvanized by an insecurity that churches are feeling now with the rise of women.

"Monotheistic religions feel threatened by the rise of feminism and the insistence, in many communities, that women take a bigger role in the church. At the same time that women are claiming more responsibility for their religious life, they are also moving out of traditional roles as wife and mother. This is why abortion is so threatening to many religious people -- it represents some rejection of the traditional role of mother."

"We have to be very clear about male violence within the monotheistic religions. This is a failure within churches and we can't be casual about it. But we can't be casual about the importance of religion either. We need to be both respectful of religion and critical of religion. Otherwise I suspect we won't get very far at all."

Related:
Freedom Fighter in Life Becomes Potent Symbol in Death ("Milk" review by the New York Times)
Seven Weeks to Equality (A call to action for supporters of gay rights)