Dear Abby for Same-Sex Marriage
Posted on | October 10, 2007
When Dear Abby is farther to the left than any major presidential candidate, you know America has drifted rightward.
‘I believe if two people want to commit to each other, God bless ‘em,” the syndicated advice columnist told The Associated Press. ”That is the highest form of commitment, for heaven’s sake.”
What Jeanne Phillips, aka Abigail Van Buren, finds offensive and misguided are homophobic jokes, phrases like ”That’s so gay,” and parents who reject or try to reform their children when they come out of the closet.
Her views are the reason she’s being honored this week by Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, a national advocacy group that provides support for gay people and their families. The original Abby, Phillips’ 89-year-old mother, Pauline, helped put PFLAG on the map in 1984 when she first referred a distraught parent to the organization.
Jeanne Phillips, who formally took over the column when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease five years ago, has continued plugging the group, as well as its affiliate for parents with children who identify as transgender, and a suicide hot line aimed at gay teenagers.
”I’m trying to tell kids if they are gay, it’s OK to be gay. I’ve tried to tell families if they have a gay family member to accept them and love them as they always have,” she said Friday.
We need to get over our equation of homosexuality with weakness, and stop being so damned scared.
