Practicin' and Preachin'

To nobody's great surprise, Texas is one of the states that will be considering an amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. There are actually two amendments out there. One would simplyk define marriage as being between a man and a woman. The other is a Virginia-style horror that would eliminate all kinds of legal contracts between same-sex spouses that are designed to get around the lack of protection for same-sex relationship due to the discriminatory nature of American civil marriage.

There's a group that's popped up to oppose the amendments called Practice What You Preach. Their take is that the whole thing is a stupid waste of time for the state legislature, and does nothing to help families or the institution of marriage in divorce-happy Texas.

They are right about that, of course, but I still feel a little queasy when I read their web site:

Practice What You Preach believes that the institution of marriage is under assault in Texas from the twin epidemics of divorce and domestic violence. We are not a gay-rights group. We are mainstream, straight Texans who want the legislative leadership to stop making cheap political points by ignoring real problems.

Now, I think it's great to see straight people standing up to oppose these amendments. In fact I think a "straight people against stupid anti-gay-marriage amendments" group is a great idea. But I keep stumbling at

We are not a gay-rights group. We are mainstream, straight Texans...

First of all - yes kids, you are a gay rights group. The main focus of gay rights group has been the equal treatment of gay people. By opposing the amendments, you are standing up for that.

Second of all - "mainstream?" Ugh. So gay Texans are not mainstream Texans? (OK, strictly speaking, gay people aren't mainstream anywhere but a handful of places like Provincetown. But gay Texans are no less mainstream than Democratic Texans (and at the rate we're going, are likely to be more numerous).

Maybe they are just way more politically savvy than me and this is the right approach and I should just get over it. I don't know. But I think "ick" every time I look at their web site.

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