In reply to Chuck.

I hope you don't take what I'm saying as "This is what I believe, and I won't do anything about it." It's more like "This is what I believe, and I expect politicians I support to do everything they can to move the ball down the court, short of self-immolating and putting Republicans in office." Which certainly doesn't mean those politicians deserve thank you banners. But if we end up with a Republicans controlling the White House and both houses of Congress in the middle of an economic downturn, I think we'll all be more worried about Splicer attacks than marriage.

It's difficult to talk about this stuff without sounding like a member of the Church of the Savvy, but surely you lost faith in politicians before 2005-2006? The Bush v. Gore opinion was the last nail in the coffin for me; I used to think the Supreme Court was the one branch that basically argued in good faith, instead of finding ways to justify their preferred policy goals. I know what you mean, though--Obama, as candidate, seemed to be promising to basically step away from bad faith arguments, but as president hasn't done that. (If I hear one more statement about how the government needs to tighten its belt in hard economic times, just like American families I'm going to puke, then assume the metaphor goes both ways and start printing my own currency.)

Unfortunately I do think mouth-breathers are more likely to turn out to vote against gays than they are to stay home instead of vote for a Mormon. They don't beat up Mormons in high school, or pray outside Mormon tabernacles, or faint and moan about their kids being recruited by Mormons. Unless you are blogging from Missouri in the 1830s. In which case I highly recommend relocating to California before 1860.

As far as justice around this issue in your lifetime, I guess it depends what you mean by "justice" and how long you live, but game it out. If we don't have gay marriage in California within a couple of years I'll be amazed, either because of a Prop 8 decision affirming the 9th circuit or because of another proposition in 2014 . I would bet that, if Obama is reelected, one of the issues in the 2016 Presidential election will be federal recognition of gay marriage (for taxes, federal law, &c.) in the states that recognize them. Once that happens (and it will) we're one court case away from national. So even if we assumed gay marriage didn't become any more popular than it is right now, the worst case scenario is what, 2014 for California, 2025 for Alabama? But the fact is, even with the lag between polling and the way people are actually voting, gay marriage is becoming more popular by leaps and bounds, so I don't think it will take anywhere near that long to pass on a national level. Ten years? Even in the worst case scenario, I expect you'll be around to see it.