Recently, the Massachusetts State has ruled that homosexual marriage is legal. This is an enormous, ground-breaking piece of legislation for a number of reasons.
First, it runs against the legislative norms of any established society in the history of the world. Never has there been a society where homosexual marriage has been deemed as on equal footing, legally speaking, to heterosexual marriage. Obviously, homosexual activity has long been a part of human society. Societies have dealt with it in various ways. Some have swept the matter under the carpet. Others have persecuted homosexuals. Others have lauded homosexual behaviour as an ideal form of love. None have legislated it as a full and equal part of marriage. This is for obvious reasons: homosexuality is not procreative. It is an interesting side bar to this current debate that population levels are actually decreasing in many Western societies today.
Second, this piece of legislative ruling is also astonishing from a current political standpoint too. In other states in America, until very recently sodomy was illegal. That is, you could be arrested, convicted and tried (at least in theory) for the act of homosexual sexual penetration. In other words, this piece of legislation brings into stark relief, once again, how America is becoming something of a schizophrenic society. This bifurcation of American society is also illustrated by its reaction to the presidency of George Bush. There are people who love him. There are people who hate him. Rarely do you find people who are simply ambivalent.
