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New Entry for Blog of Unnecessary Quotation Marks?

By Fannie

Even though same-sex couples are now legally permitted to marry in California, that legal fact doesn't stop some marriage defenders from excessive unnecessary quotations marks to cast suspicion on the legitimacy of same-sex relationships. Like stubborn segregationists blocking access to white schools, they fail to concede a loss when they have, in fact, lost. Scare quotes, or more accurately "sneer quotes," are non-direct quotations used to indicate scorn, sarcasm, and/or disagreement with another person's usage of a word.

Let's observe propaganda machine LifeSiteNews go out of its way to tell one married couple that what they have isn't real. Ridiculing Del Martin and Phyllis Lion, who are finally legally married after 50 years together, LifeSite contributor Peter J. Smith writes:

"Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco who led the charge to persuade the high court to tear down the most fundamental institution behind the family, 'married' lesbian activists Phyllis Lyon, 84, and her partner Del Martin, 87, in a special ceremony at City Hall. Lyon and Martin were the first same-sex couple 'wed' under the court-mandated law.

Participants could hardly hold back the tears for Lyon and Martin, whom Newsom lauded as 'pioneers' for homosexual 'marriage.' The Los Angeles Times reveals that the 'newlyweds' relationship began 50 years ago in this way: Martin revealed to Lyon, her friend and co-worker at the time, that she had lesbian tendencies."

Wow. Well done Peter. That's like 5 uses of unnecessary quotation marks within a mere few sentences. Surely that's some sort of record! In fact, wouldn't it be fun to have a little Find the Most Unnecessary "Gay 'Marriage'-Related" Quotations on the web?! Let's contact the Blog of Unnecessary Quotation Marks now!

But seriously, I've written about this phenomenon before. Specifically, scare quotes are a way for dominant groups to inform us that they own the ability to label people and experiences. It's something anti-gay groups do that tells us, as non-heterosexuals, that our experiences in the world are not valid or legitimate. Our experiences, our families, and our relationships belong between quotation marks because they aren't as real as the heterosexual experience. In their arrogance, these bigots wrongly believe that they hold a monopoly on The Authentic and Legitimate Human Experience.

Oh, and what kind of person is a dick to women in their 80's?

Family values are fun.

Full post as published by Fannie's Room on June 20, 2008 (boomark / email).