File:The computer is the devils machine.jpg

Employing irony in the marriage debate

Outside the State House, there are many more gay rights protesters than anti-gay marriage demonstrators. One of the anti-gay marriage proponents, Susie Hicks from Woburn, said this was because everyone thinks gay marriage is a "done deal." She was at the State House with her friend Angela Mitchell, also from Woburn. Mitchell held a sign that read WE WANT THE BAY STATE NOT THE GAY STATE, THAT WOULD MEAN A SAD STATE.

Her sign was in sharp contrast to some of those held by gay marriage supporters that focus on gays who've made history such as Leonardo da Vinci, Alan Turing, who invented the computer, and Katherine Lee Bates, who wrote "America the Beautiful." The sign focusing on Turning, for example, reads: DESTROY THE COMPUTER! IT'S A HOMOSEXUAL INVENTION BY ALAN TURING. WHO CARES IF HE CRACKED THE GERMAN ENIGMA CODE AND WON WORLD WAR II. IT'S A HOMO'S DEVIL MACHINE.

Tom Lang of Manchester by the Sea held one of the signs -- which have taken some viewers a few moments to figure out. "We're trying to show how important gay people are to the American culture," Lang explained. "We're not mental. We're not immoral. But we're important to society and interwoven into the tapestry of America."

— reported by Deirdre Fulton

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/pages/03709277.asp#1130am