Proto Himbo European
@guyjantic@infosec.exchange
Both USAian and Canadian (this justifies my silly username) Antifascist. Pro-people. Love me some music. Sometimes I make it. Love photos. Sometimes I take them. Love my kid. Always & forever. Academic who likes academia as a friend. I'm sure my employers disagree with much of what I post. he/him or whatever, as long as it's not directly, personally insulting Alt-text: Gimme a minute after I post before reminding me. I sometimes obscure my employers (to protect me, not them)
infosec.exchange
RE: https://infosec.exchange/@guyjantic/116564009962120990
This wasn't idle musing. I don't have the answers, but I grew up #Mormon, with stories of the #LDS leaders being hunted and imprisoned for, IDK, maybe 5 decades, for practicing polygamy. The morality, reality, propaganda, etc. of that aside: I grew up in the US West bathed in stories of the Evil Government abusing my ancestors, ignoring other people abusing them, and then passing laws specifically to abuse them about their marriage choices (AFAIK #polygamy is illegal in the USA because of the moral panic surrounding Mormon polygamy in the 1800s). I grew up with the idea firmly in my mind that the government should stay the heck out of the marriage and relationship business.
Then that same church spent tons of money lobbying the US government to get involved in the marriage business--specifically, to make gay marriage illegal. The LDS leaders, those dry, boring, suit-wearing, drama-eschewing Men Of The Earth Etc., wrote amicus briefs in multiple court cases asking governments to get up in the marriage business of other people, told the faithful (and it's extremely authoritarian; the faithful believe what they're told to believe) that gay marriage was super duper evil, and even pressured/commanded (kind of the latter, but with plausible deniability) thousands of members in California and Hawaii to go door to door to convince their neighbors to vote against legalization of gay marriage.
After I left (a bit over a decade ago) the church doubled down, led by a new wave of far-right "fire and brimstone" men, and degraded the membership rights and privileges of gay and trans members... and their children.
But the message that the government could maybe stay the fuck out of people's relationships (I can say "fuck" now) is still in my head and heart. I don't know all the consequences or how it would work, but I think the government should let marriage be a personal and maybe religious experience with no government involvement whatsoever.
