Marriage is Still Not Assimilation

I recently updated this older post for publication in Consider Magazine. Here is my revised version.

Marriage is Not Assimilation

Some activists have resisted the push for marriage equality by arguing that marriage itself is patriarchal or heteronormative, or that many leading figures in the marriage equality movement exhibit oppressive social attitudes.

But marriage is not assimilation, and even if it were, it would still be a right worth fighting for.

Filibuster, Schmilibuster

Obama and the Senate Democrats should have ignored the threat of a filibuster on health care reform from the beginning–and they should be ignoring it now. A sixty seat majority is totally unnecessary, and would have been unnecessary for any version of the bill. Obama’s promises, especially the public option, should never have been sacrificed in the name of pragmatics as long as there were at least 51 Democrats on board.