The UK is slowly making its way towards allowing consensual marriage between adults, no matter who those adults happen to be. This is a good thing. Without qualifiers. It is just good. The current state of things can be simply summed up as “unjust” — or, to put it into British Political Terms, “not fair”.

But as the slow march towards equality continues, people continue to out themselves as bigots. That’s OK. Bigots are a part of life, and so long as bigots are increasingly marginalized, and bigotry continues to be less acceptable, they can serve as a barometer of our progress.

But sometimes the bigots are not inconsequential voices. Sometimes they are members of parliament; people who author, debate, and/or vote on laws. Bigoted MPs are not good. And some of them are saying things that truly piss me right the fuck off.

For instance, there was this article on the BBC, in which Defence Secretary Phil Hammond says:

There is a real sense of anger among many people who are married that any government thinks it has the ability to change the definition of an institution like marriage.

This anti-gay-marriage argument is one of the most common, and it is absolutely infuriating.

First, Hammond cannot even manage to make it for himself. He feels the need to disassociate with it, and claim it on the behalf of “many people”. So the whole thing begins with a bit of doublespeak, so that he can distance himself from the opinion when people call him out as a homophobe. Good politics, perhaps, but cowardly.

Secondly, it implies that the value that (some) people see in their marriage does not have to do with their partner, love, family, or commitment. It has to do with privilege. It states “I value my marriage because my ability to be in it makes me feel superior to other people.” Instead of a simple, straightforward dislike of people who are different, it is a belief that societal institutions that disenfranchise a segment of the population are good, right, and moral.

That, to me, is far more horrific.

Finally, I’m married. And I have never felt entirely comfortable being part of an institution which continues to enshrine inequality. I’m part of a “many people who are married” as well. Only, unlike Hammond’s “many”, mine believe that our marriages will gain meaning by being inclusive. My membership in the married club will be made all the better once the club is no longer exclusionary.

Today, the BBC published another story, of course. We can probably expect to see these every day between now and the first gay marriage in Britain. And each of them will feature Conservative politicians expressing their homophobia couched in terms that are meant to hide it.

And bravo to the Conservative politicians pushing this through despite this opposition. It can’t be easy for them.

I’m not sure what a spam filter is for, if it fails to catch the spam. (I shouldn’t complain, I’ve marked 29 messages as spam that have made it through the filter. The filter has caught over 29,000 spam messages. And this one didn’t even make it through — it was just marked for human review.)

There’s a post on this blog titled Links, including foam, porn, robots and sports statistics. Commas are important.

You might be forgiven to think that this is not the deepest of posts I’ve ever put together. But clearly you’d be wrong.

“I want to express thanks to the writer for rescuing me from such a crisis,” the comment begins. “I was thinking my entire life was over.”

How sad.

Also: “Thank you very much for your high quality and results-oriented help.”

I’m assuming that this was all to do with including a link to instructions on making your own toilet paper.

Photo by Toni Verdú Carbó.

The next verse in the thirty song challenge is …

A song that you can dance to

To which I immediately think:

We can dance if we want to; we can leave your friends behind.
Because your friends don’t dance, and if you don’t dance you’re no friend of mine.

Seriously. That’s what I think. I literally just think the lyrics to Safety Dance.

Because if you can dance, you can dance to any song you like. And as soon as I start to think that, the lyrics are pretty much underway.

Only one problem. I chose Safety Dance last time I did this thirty-song-thingamajig. So I need something else.

There’s the titular one. Except that my main memory of wanting to dance to it was people resolutely refusing to do so when I decided to add it to the list of songs being played at a party that everybody was dancing at. So fuck that. The people in residence in first year had no Bowie appreciation. The fuckers.

Which brings us to university. And dancing. And the song that would get even the most resolute non-dancer off their ass and on to the dance floor.

Our song challenge continues with part 8:

A song that you know all the words to

Oh, my. There are simply too many choices here. I spent most of high school learning to play songs on guitar and sing them; this process prompted me to memorize many, many, many songs. Many songs.

And then there are songs with no words at all. Millions, and millions of songs.

But let’s assume that instrumentals don’t count.

I’m actually slightly concerned that somebody listed this as part of a “30 Day Song Challenge”, as though finding such a song might be challenging. Or perhaps it’s meant to be revealing?

Well, a cover of this song is coming up in my playlist, and I know every word — so let’s go with that:

Fuck that. Everybody should know every word.

From memory:

It’s four in the morning, the end of December.
I’m writing you now just to see if you’re better.
New York is cold, but I like where I’m living — there’s music on Clinton Street all through the evening.

Sincerely,
L. Cohen.

And the cover currently playing? Tori Amos: