Blogs Jan 8, 2010 at 9:49 am

Comments

1
Legalized Deviancy.
Is still Deviancy.
2
Socrates was available for comment?
3
Maybe a leader in the US will have a vision to "modernize" in such a way at some point.
4
Thanks for posting this, Dan. It's been a rough run since Prop 8 - I need that.
5
YEAH baby!

Suck it, bigots!

And by the way, "Dred Scot", the man's last name was "Scott". And you could not be more of a troll if you had said "FIRST!!". And yes, it is sad that Portugal had for so long legalized the deviant behavior of persecuting queers. But hey, that kind of deviancy is no longer legal there. w00t.
6
5
"Dred Scott" is a registered name, and unavailable to the troll.
I share your concern, disappointment and outrage over this matter.
I will forward your complaint to Dan.
7
Does this mean they'll do well in the Winter Olympics?
8
*snort* It's not been a year since India decriminalised homosexuality, and there are already sects willing to perform same-sex marriages, even if the country hasn't legalised same-sex marriage yet....
9
Damn Straight!
errr...
10
Americans hate homos and embrace minorities. Europeans hate minorities and embrace homos. Does that about sum it up?
11
We'll legalize gay marriage just after we start using the metric system.
12
so since any EU citizen can live anywhere in the EU and get married in any EU country then .... that means the entire EU recognizes gay marriage.

I see wedding "vacations" to Portugal in the near future.
13
It was illegal to be gay in Portugal in 1982. Sometimes you have to pause and marvel at just how much progress we've made in such a short period of time. We are winning.

Absolutely. The tide is moving inexorably in that direction. And every time a country legalizes same-sex marriage, and people can see that it doesn't "destroy" marriage, it demonstrates the absurdity of that argument by the religious right and other conservatives.

There may be some setbacks worldwide, as evangelicals get apoplectic, but Uganda is not the United States or Portugal.
14
great post dan. couple things: 1. i love portugal and now i love them more! great place for vacations and now, for much more! 2. when you write "we are winning". this straight guy says the same thing out loud everytime!

WE are winning...all of us.
15
For those of you who are as confused as I was as to why an ancient Greek philosopher was being quoted in the above:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_S…

Like all good journalists, Mr. Savage edited something he found on the AP wire, which was previously edited down from a person investigating the story, which was previously edited down from what actually happened, because that's how we're taught things should work.
16
Portugal was also a dictatorship until the mid-Seventies. They've been freeing themselves from all sorts of tyranny in a rapid fashion.
17
@16 - you might ... just might ... have them confused with Spain.

You know, Franco?
18
@17 is he still dead?
19
James Franco seems very young to have been a Spanish dictator.
20
@17 - Will in Seattle : Actually, he's not confusing Portugal with Spain. Portugal had a dictatorship until the year 1974....

You know, Salazar ?
21
@17: Wrong. Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, the long-time Portuguese dictator, was incapacitated by a stroke in 1968. The Estado Novo (i.e. dictatorship) lasted until 1974 under his successor, Marcelo Caetano, who was overthrown in an almost bloodless coup by the Armed Forces Movement, composed of officers who were opposed to the continuation of Portugal's colonial wars. Democratization then proceeded over the next two years.
22
@20: Beat me to it. Salazar's an interesting example of one of the inherent problems of dictatorships - they don't readily change with the times. When Salazar first seized power, it may well have been for the best, in that if he hadn't, power would have probably fallen into the hands of either bolshevists or hard-line fascists (Salazar was somewhat fascist himself, but of a fairly moderate stripe, preferring to co-opt enemies when possible, and kill them only if co-option was not feasible), either of whom would have been far worse, and he did great things for the Portuguese economy. But by the late 60s, he was clearly on the wrong side of history.
23
Where's LC's inevitable rant about how the poor peepulz of Portuseagul have been denied the right to vote on this, 'cuz you know, representative democracy doesn't really mean what everybody else seems to think it means and maybe we should boycott them or send troops in or otherwise intervene in their internal affairs, 'cuz they don't do things like he/she/they/it thinks they should be done?
24
@20 - what's a few dictators between friends. Sorry, I only visited after the dictatorship. Portuguese is a fairly hard language to learn, as I recall.
25
Portugal also legalized all drugs a few years back, right? Goddamn I love that place.
27
So, Allegedly (@1), does calling something deviancy make it somehow bad or wrong?
28
Comes into force a couple of weeks before Pope Nazi visits. Poifect.
29
"We are winning."

...just not in America.
30
@25: No, they decriminalized all drugs a few years back, and regarded drug abuse as an illness as opposed to a crime. I think they instead invested money towards treating people, because they figured treating addicts is much less expensive than jailing them (go figure). I know the whole purpose of decriminalization was to lower drug abuse and HIV rates. The UN heavily scrutinized them for it initially ... until recent polls are indicating that drug rates have declined dramatically in Portugal, and so has the number of new people infected with HIV. So now, after the fact, the UN is all for Portugal's stance on drugs. Go them.
31
@29: Give it time. Culturally, the US is a pretty backward place as far as first world nations go. But we'll get there, even if it takes a lot longer than it seems like it should.
32
As a long-time champion of rehabilitation over punishment (for most, if not all felonies), Nova, that is really enheartening news to me.
33
What, nothing from Loveschild?
34
Ireland, home of Dan's ancestors, decriminalised homosexuality in 1993.
1993. The country's first Civil Partnerships Bill is currently going through Parliament and expected to pass. It's not a great Bill in terms of provision, but, in terms of social progress, going from decriminalisation in 1993 to state-recognised relationships in (probably) 2010 is proof that at least things are going in the right direction.
35
@ 27: No, calling something deviancy makes it extra yummy. ;)

We'll see how today goes in federal court RE: Prop 8. Toes crossed.

Please wait...

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