(L) Vintage Ad VIV Vivid Pink Lipstick 1956 (R) Marriage Equality Logo
New Beginnings
As spring begins, the window opens for the chance to be a June bride, that most coveted month for nuptials.
This June the window may open wider.
Bringing a breeze of fresh air into the traditional notion of marriage, June is when we can expect the U.S. Supreme Court to make their ruling concerning marriage equality.
Notions of traditional marriage are dated as some of these images we have all grown up with.
Vintage Illustration Wedding Day by Pruett Carter 1948 Ladies Home Journal
Like the appearance of the first crocuses, each spring would bring with it a new crop of bridal and wedding themed imagery. Every magazine you flipped through, every ad you saw, painted the same glowing picture of the inevitability of marriage. For most of the past century girls on the fast tract to matrimony were convinced that the basic occupation of every girl was choosing a man to marry.
Vintage Saturday Evening Post Cover Illustration by Constantin Alajalov 6/1/46 “Kid sister tries on wedding dress.”
And what gal didn’t close her eyes and imagine her wedding shower, filled with all that latest Wear-ever pressure cookers, copper bottom Revere Ware and her very own silverplate?
Vintage Ad Presto Cooker 1948 ” Presto Cookers Make Lucky Brides Happy Homemakers”
Dream of arranging your table for two-his place, your place-with all the Community silverplate you need. Dream of entertaining-proudly-knowing your guests will whisper “Isn’t she lucky- It’s Community!”
Vintage Ad Community Silver 1946 illustration by Jon Whitcomb
This would be for keeps. You’ve dreamed…forever…of this moment! You’ve lived…forever..for this minute. You start forever with this minute. This is for keeps.
Human Rights Campaign logo for Marriage Equality
And marriage equality should be for keeps.
The Supreme Court heard 2 landmark marriage equality cases last week bringing us one step closer to defeating discrimination, ensuring all Americans are treated equally under the law, and finally removing some of the barriers to Gays and Lesbians full participation in the American Dream including marriage.
The Right Is Wrong
It wasn’t long ago that this notion was inconceivable if not down right frightening as portrayed in a 1972 homophobic comic booklet entitled “Gay Blade”, which ominously predicted a future filled with..gasp….gay marriage.
These small comics published by the Christian right-wing Chick Publications were filled with dire warnings of the dangers of homosexuality and the “coming revolution” invading the mainstream. The small 3″x5″ comics sold cheaply in bulk making it handy for you to spread the hateful message everywhere you went- in phone booths, tables, Laundromats, school lockers, windshield
Called “chick tracts” these small comic booklets, approximately 20 pages in length, were short Evangelic themed stories created by Jack Chick an American Fundamentalist. Chick Publications, who boast on their current website–“publishing cartoon gospel tracts and equipping Christians for evangelism for fifty years.”
“The Gay Blade” ( originally written in 1972, revised in 1984 and now out of print) borrowed several of its frames from a 1971 Life Magazine photo essay on the Gay Liberation movement, but with the images altered to make gay men look more depraved and stereotypically feminized.
Chick tracts are unequivocal and explicit in their opposition to homosexuality and repeatedly employ themes such as 1.The belief that God hates homosexuality and considers it to be sinful and 2. The true nature of homosexuality is revealed in the Christian fundamental interpretation of the biblical Sodom and Gomorrah story.
Since 1961 Chick has cranked out tract after tract to” help sinners see the light, believing that Jesus can deliver anyone from Homosexuality and make them a new person.
The fear mongering continues over 40 years later.
Can This Marriage Be Saved?
The Evangelical comics seem ludicrous if not downright laughable now, but ironically not a lot has changed among some Christian groups, especially when it comes to gay marriage. New York’s Archbishop Timothy Dalton quoted in the national Catholic Register, warned his flock:“You think it’s going to stop with this? You think now bigamists are going to want their rights to marry? You think somebody that wants to marry his sister is going to now say: “I have a right?’ I mean, it’s the same principle, isn’t it?”
Conservatives are desperate to hold onto the traditional definition of marriage.
Just last week Think Progress reported that some Fox News contributors have recently claimed that Marriage Equality would actually criminalize Christianity.
“As the Supreme Court weighs the merits of allowing gay and lesbian Americans the freedom to marry, right-wing anti-equality advocates are cranking up fear mongering claiming that a world of marriage equality is one that would functionally ban Christians from practicing their religion.”
“Two Fox contributors made dire predictions along those lines. Todd Starnes speaking on American Family Radio, argued that “persecution (of Christians) like we have never seen it” had “already started” as a consequence of the marriage equality movement.
“Another Fox News contributor, Erik Erikson went further. Writing on RedState a conservative blog, Erikson fantasized about a world where the US government began terrorizing Christian institutions, shuttering Christian business for opposing marriage equality, and labeling Christians themselves criminals.”
“Within a year or 2 we will see Christian schools attacked for refusing to admit students whose parents are gay. We will see churches suffer the loss of their tax exempt status for refusing to hold gay weddings. We will see private businesses shut down because the refuse to treat as legitimate that which perverts Gods own established plan.”
Copyright (©) 2013 Sally Edelstein All Rights Reserved
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