On Monday, November 9th Conrad was interviewed on the Old Mole Variety Show, a program of KBOO 90.7fm in Portland Oregon. KBOO is an all volunteer run community radio station and the Old Mole Show is socialist feminist social justice radio program. The segment is available below and linked back to KBOO's site! Enjoy!
Old Mole Variety Show on KBOO
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4 comments:
Nice job, Ryan. You articulated yourself very well, here, and came off as incredibly measured and thoughtful.
jjm
Perhaps marriage became a big deal in Maine because the powerful bigots decided to take the just-gained marriage equality away.
If you don't want to get married or join the military, fine. That's your choice. If you want to tell the rest of us we shouldn't want it, either, then you side with our enemies.
How does siding with our enemies help the LGBTQQ community? It doesn't.
How does siding with them help them? It gives them ammo to continue to keep us oppressed. There are already plenty of them who argue we don't really want to do either; we just want to destroy them. That's a load of fucking bullshit.
Marriage is not a single-issue fight. You mention insurance and that's a perfect example, though you apparently can't see it.
Most insured people in this country get insurance through their employers. Who is covered by insurance is contingent on legal family status. Unless a company decides to extend dometic partner benefits, only spouses and children get coverage. If your (hypothetical?) partner worked for a company that provided insurance, but only for legally recognized family, you'd be uninsured. If marriage were legal, you would have the option to be insured.
Further, insurance-wise, there's COBRA. If a same-sex couple gets all their insurance through one partner's employer, and he or she loses that job, COBRA coverage will be available only to the employee. His or her partner would immediately lose insurance coverage.
What if that couple has children? Since we're denied marriage, if the partner with no insurance was the legal parent of those children, they would immediately lose their insurance, as well.
Marriage rights are not a short-term thing, either. Surely you can't have missed the governor of RI vetoing a bill that would've allowed same-sex partners to make funeral arrangements, ffs. In addition, vindictive family members have more right to the deceased's belongings, and possibly home, than a same-sex partner. Why? Because legally, they are related. I've heard far too many stories of surviving long-time partners losing everything, thanks to the simple fact that our relationships have no legal recognition.
Marriage involves an incredible number of issues. No, marriage equality will not fix everything, but it would fix such an incredible number of them that opposing it is cutting off your nose to spite your face.
BTW, the "historically oppressive" attitude toward marriage is absurd. It has no bearing on the present day and no bearing on same-sex marriages, since there's no husband-as-owner-of-wife dynamic.
Thank you so much...you raise so many points that nobody in the leadership of the queer community want to hear. I, too, find it scary just how many people get sucked up into the ideal of "equality" by the pro-marriage side when marriage is anything but equality. Hearing this made my day, so thank you again!
Your interview has sparked the anticipated reactions at bilerico.com.
I'm glad your friend Nick alerted me to you. Nick likes you, so you must be good people.
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