COLCHESTER– The Green Party mayor of the village of New Paltz, New York (population about 6,000) gained notoriety when he agreed to marry same-sex couples, following the example of San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsome and officials in Sandoval County, New Mexico.
Now he's using that notoriety to continue speaking out as a straight ally in support of marriage equality. His mission is in part inspired by the quote from Dante with which he opened his talk: The hottest parts of hell are reserved for those who in times of crisis do nothing.
         West’s wide-ranging talk started with the fact that marriage has been a sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church only since the 11th century, and ranged through the nature of marriage, Mosaic law, the bankruptcy of current political issues between the two major parties, aspiring to boredom for gay couples' wedding videos, the better marriage system of the Netherlands, why it is appropriate to compare the gay rights/marriage-equality struggles to the Black Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and '60s, and the importance of coming out if you're gay and supporting those who come out if you're straight.
       Although there were a few questions of the "If you were asked to marry two brothers who were gay, would you?" ilk, for the most part the mostly student audience was courteous. West's response to that question: "Why, are you interested?" He then admitted that was a cheap shot, apologized, and explained why incest laws would prohibit such a ceremony.
        The argument that giving legal recognition to same-sex marriage is a "slippery slope" potentially leading to legalization of incest, pedophilia, and bestiality is, he said, "mostly irrelevant." Besides, "No one is asking" for those things.
       West supports the common European system, which he identified with the Netherlands. Everyone is first married by a magistrate in a civil ceremony, and all legal rights, benefits, privileges and responsibilities stem from that action. Any couple who so wishes can then participate in a religious wedding ceremony of their choice.
       "If you remove the legal power to marry from the religious arena, you leave the spiritual power, and it allows every denomination to have that conversation" about who should marry within the particular faith tradition.
       In an aside, he said that "Marrying straights is not nearly as much fun as marrying gays."
       Like abortion, he said, gay marriage is a political issue only because the issues that really have an impact on people's daily lives are not on the table for discussion. Some of those issues include war, resources, jobs moving to other countries through the NAFTA and CAFTA trade treaties, health care, and social security.
        But the real problem conservatives have with marriage equality isn't whether gays can marry, West argued. "It's about equality. Equal marriage undermines the dominance of men."
        He professed to being "appalled" when the natural allies of marriage equality, including the Human Rights Campaign, "melted away" in order to support John Kerry's candidacy in the last presidential election. "John Kerry's and George Bush's positions on marriage were identical: 'I'm not personally in favor of gay marriage, but the states should decide.' From Bush that was remarkable. From Kerry, that was abhorrent.”
        When asked why he as a straight man was putting himself out there as a speaker on marriage equality for same-sex couples when there are plenty of gay men and lesbians who could speak on their own behalf, West said, “I was asked to. There's somehow more of a hook when I do it. If you're gay, you’re supposed to believe in your own equality. If you're straight and you believe in marriage equality, it's more unexpected."
       To those who object to "conflating" the gay rights movement with the Black Civil Rights movement, West had this to say: "The scale is different, but the struggle is the same. People get redlined, fired, lynched. The patterns are the same. And that’s why Coretta Scott King and John L. Lewis and other leaders have supported marriage equality."
       His final bit of political advice was that the Democrats should neutralize conservative religious influence by working with faith groups who embrace and support equality.