经济学人下载:美国佬的幸福婚姻

Gallup reported in May that for the first time ever a majority (53% to 45%) of Americans said that same-sex couples should have the same marriage rights as straight couples. In 1996, the time of DOMA, the majority leant 68% to 27% the other way. The controversial policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell”, which banned gays from serving openly in the armed forces, is meanwhile due to expire in September with surprisingly little hue and cry. And when National Journal polled political “insiders” this month, it found a majority of Democratic politicos, lobbyists and strategists in favour of making gay marriage legal. No less telling, a majority of their Republican counterparts, while continuing to oppose gay marriage, thought their party should just ignore the issue.

今年五月的盖洛普民意调查第一次显示，大部分美国民众认为同性伴侣应该享有与异性夫妻同等的婚姻权利(53%人支持，45%反对)。1996年<<婚姻保护法>>刚颁布的时候，支持上述说法的只有27%,而反对则的占68%。这项所谓”不得质不问，不说”的颇具争议的禁止同性恋者公开参军法令，将在今年9月份失效。 国家杂志上刊登出对这个月对内部政客意见的调查结果显示，大部分民主党政客，说客，战略家支持同性婚姻合法化。勿需多言，大多数共和党人依然反对同性婚姻，并认为共和党应该直接对同性婚姻问题说，免谈。

That might make electoral sense. Since it is the young who are most relaxed about gay marriage, standing in its path might cost the Republicans dear in the future. The notion of denying gays the spousal rights available to others makes little sense to a generation that sees marriage at least as much as a union of soul-mates as a formal structure for child-rearing.

这可能会直接影响党派在选举上的受欢迎程度。因为现在的年轻人并不在乎到底是异性恋还是同性恋，共和党强力阻拦同性恋只会为自己的前途搁上绊脚石。这一代的年轻人将婚姻视作是灵魂上的伴侣而不仅仅是为传宗接代的名正言顺，因此，异性婚姻有的权利到同性结合上却没有，年轻人对此表示无法理解。

To crusaders against gay marriage, however, the issue transcends electoral calculation. They say they are defending both God’s will and a vital child-centred institution that is already beleaguered enough. In this election cycle, Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman pursuing the Republican presidential nomination, has become a lightning-conductor on gay issues. In spite of having a gay stepsister, she has long put opposition to same-sex marriage at the centre of her politics. In 2004 she likened the gay lifestyle to “personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement”. The fact that her husband runs a clinic offering to cure gays of their supposed affliction has caused both indignation and merriment among metropolitan types.

然而，对于反对同性婚姻的战士们来说，同性婚姻这个问题已经。他们自称既捍卫神的旨意又在捍卫着“以孩子为中心”的重要社会习俗，而这一习俗已是颇受指责。在这次选举周期里，尼苏达州国会女议员米歇尔.巴赫曼是明，为了争取到共和党总统候选人提名奋力角逐，变成了同性恋问题的一把“避雷针”。尽管自己有一个同父异母的姐姐就是同性恋，但她一直以来还是把反对同性婚姻作为自己的核心政治立场。早在2004年，她就将同性恋的生活方式比作 “对个人的束缚，奴役，和折磨的生活”。她的丈夫开了一家诊所，他们为他们所认为饱受同性恋之苦的人们提供治疗，这真是让大城市里的人又爱又恨。