Week.3-same sex marriage, legal, the US

Love just won 不同又相同的愛

Sat, Jul 04, 2015 - Page 11

Nine US Supreme Court Justices have ruled that the gay marriage ban is unconstitutional and have legalized same-sex marriage across the fifty states of the US. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yu Mei-nu remarked, “I hope that our grand justices can also base their decisions on the Constitution, not just public opinion polls, and reach a milestone for gender equality in Taiwan in the near future.”

Gay actor Ian McKellen, who played Magneto in the X-men films, rejoiced at the news and without hesitation accepted fellow actor Derek Jacobi’s marriage proposal. McKellen has frequently spoken out for the gay community, but, in fact, did not come out of the closet until he was forty-nine, which he regretted bitterly. He believes that if he had come out much earlier, he would have turned into a completely different person.

Exiled Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan published his opinion on Facebook, saying that it is through prolonged and arduous effort that this step has finally been achieved; the legalization of same-sex marriage in the US shows the world that the US’s insistence on basic values and its capacity to tolerate diversity have not abated. Wang said, such a capacity is the foundation on which the US, or any nation in the world, depends to establish itself as a nation. The US not only realizes gay rights, but also reached a social consensus that says “all men are created equal.” This is a principle so holy that no obsolete customs, religions or political doctrines should be allowed to violate. Lastly, Wang gaily called out to the Bread of Life Christian Church and the Alliance of Religious Groups for the Love of Families Taiwan, “Welcome to the civilized world.”

Lawyer Lu Chiu-yuan said the US is the biggest Christian country in the world, hence the US Supreme Court’s ruling is worth celebrating, but it would be foolish to think that this will help Taiwan take a big step forward in gender equality. “The reason is, we have elected a group of irresponsible legislators,” said Lu. “In the future four to eight years, Taiwan’s gender equality movement will be in the hands of the legislators and grand justices. However, none of the four new grand justices recently ‘elected’ by the legislature are liberals; all of them are conservatives.“

Lu urged those who care about gender equality movements not to just rainbow-ify their Facebook profile pictures, but to remember to elect those who can really represent them in next year’s elections; those elected politicians will then select the best grand justices, who will counteract majority public opinion, which is prone to errors, for the sake of disadvantaged minority groups.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/print/2015/07/04/2003622190

Stucture of the Lead:

Who:Nine US Supreme Court Justices
When:June, 2015
What:Legalized same-sex marriage
Why:The gay marriage ban was unconstitutional
Where:the US
How:Gays around the world were very glad about the result.

Keywords:

1.unconstitutional  違憲

2.polls  民意調查

3.rejoiced  歡欣鼓舞

4.prolonged  經久

5.arduous  艱鉅

6.diversity  多樣

7.abated  減輕

8.consensus  共識

9.obsolete 陳舊的

10.conservatives  保守派

11.counteract  抵制

12.prone  易於

13.sake  為了