Boy, it's a good thing the gay rights crowd has Madison law professor Ann Althouse as an ally.

All that toilet bowl swimming she does* with her (allegedly gay male) commenters, giving the mainstream folk a peek at how low things really can go...

Without "conservative" allies like that, why we might just have a state amendment here keeping gay citizens from accessing the same rights as their heterosexual brothers and sisters. (who, of course, can still marry -- for convenience -- a friend of the opposite sex**, and have gay co-workers in the same insurance pool pick up the tab by subsidizing the premiums/"expensive medical treatment"...)

Is this a great country state or what? Special sharing privileges -- and you get to pretend you're all for equal rights as well!

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Professor Althouse, advocating for gay rights, in her own very special way:

* "Straight women (for the most part) hate sucking dick and for that I am sorry to the straighties but want to tell you that I am with you in spirit." Thanks. Okay, straighties, picture Titus hovering over you next time -- if there is a next time. It will be really hot.

** "When I was unmarried, I used to think that I would marry a male friend in a certain scenario: He needed expensive medical treatment, and I had the health insurance coverage to share."

Hit the links above, for full context.


FRIDAY UPDATE:
Meanwhile, back in Madison, our erstwhile law professor Althouse feels the need to link to a gay twink blog (hairless young men in various states of undress) to burnish her queer credentials. *sigh* And the site makes note: the professor has a "hot gay son". Well if that doesn't convince you of her conservative nature then, nothing will.

And here's a cute blogger citing his own 3-year marriage as proof in debunking this interesting, albeit unproven, theory of marriage: (disclosure: former UW law classmate)

[T]he Victorians and first-wave feminists insisted that antiprostitution and antisodomy laws be enacted, and that married men confine their sexual impulses to the conjugal bed. The result was enforced lifelong sexual monogamy for both parties, at least in theory. That might have seemed reasonable in 1900, when the average marriage lasted about 11 years, a consequence of high death rates. But these days, when a marriage can drag on for half a century, it can be a lot of work.

Agreed, as anyone in decades-long relationship can attest. Still there's something to be said for fidelity, love, and commitment. (Heck, even Ruth and Norm were in separate beds when I first met them, and they'd been married 60+ years.) Maybe the young newlywed can hold his fire, and weigh in on his marital bliss in a few decades; citing to any marriage under even 11 years seems to miss the author's point.

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Finally, yesterday's walk to the mailbox brings a newsletter from Marquette Law, which is constructing a beautiful new facility. Personally, the one complaint I had going from a private undergrad (Northwestern) to a full law scholarship at the state school* -- was the cleanliness: dirty desk tops smeared with someone's leftover eats, unemptied trash bins. Apparently there wasn't budget for regular janitorial maintenance, and it showed in the building. Maybe a new Marquette can convince UW Law to clean up its act, literally.

And did anyone ever mention that the liberal professor A. -- she of the twink link mentioned above -- is (was?) the sole Wisconsin professor offering a course on how law impacts religion, and more importantly how religion impacts our laws? Even the regular First Amendment class gave short shrift to the religious "establishment and free exercise clauses" because of this separate class offering taught by the insufferable Prof. A.

Considering the state's marriage amendment was influenced by religious voters, and there's a clear incentive to distinguish between civil rights open to all and sacramental issues best determined by private congregations, you can understand how such issues -- even the current Mojave desert cross when you look at timeline and put it in historical perspective, might deserve better. Say what you will about the Jesuits, but I suspect Marquette concentrates more on scholarship and the substance of such issues.

Had I known then what I know now -- plus throw in a spankin' clean new building -- I might have applied and inquired about scholarships at Marquette. Madison can be an overrated liberal hotbed, protected by the State. And truth be told, Milwaukee has a much more active social scene for out-of-class pursuits, so they tell me...

*I spent 12 years out working, in between.