* * * * *
                                        
    “'Tis but thy sex that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not an XX.”
                                        
> This past century, large portions of the American South have been consumed
> by an unintended side-effect.
> 
> I refer to the infamous “kudzu” vine, imported from Japan for its stunning
> erosion-control properties. This tactic worked: Crumbling riverbanks and
> hillsides were stabilized all over the South—but, then, everyone realized
> with mounting horror that this hardy legume is almost completely
> unstoppable anywhere protected from hard freezes, growing at the awesome
> rate of a foot per night and reaching heights of 100 feet. Entire abandoned
> houses have been observed to vanish [1] under a kudzu carpet, over a summer
> growing season. It's now considered a pest; sometimes, an outright menace.
> 
> The plant can be used with caution, where its invasive side- effect is
> known and planned for—but the point is that it was deployed without
> understanding its full effects.
> 
> Laws' side-effects, likewise, can render them self-defeating (though, on
> the bright side, bad laws are easier to eradicate than kudzu): I'm going to
> explain, below, why recently popular marriage-definition legislation like
> California's November 2008 “California Marriage Protection Act” (an
> initiative state-constitutional amendment) creates kudzu-class unintended
> side effects its proponents haven't anticipated and will find horrific—in
> that they're going to end up mandating and legally sanctifying exactly the
> sort of same-sex marriages they're intending to ban.
> 

Via Randall Munroe [2] (which itself was via Hacker News [3]), “Kudzu and the
Marriage Amendment [4]”

No, really!

The article outlines eleven instances where the “visual” gender doesn't match
the actual “genetic” gender and thus, the laws outlawing same- sex marriages
could force “visual same-sex marriages.” Way to go (Nelson) [5], narrow-
minded legislators (Homer) [6]!

[1] http://www.jjanthony.com/kudzu/
[2] https://plus.google.com/111588569124648292310/posts/SeBqgN9Zoiu#1115885
[3] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2741425
[4] http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Essays/marriage.html
[5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7wtNOkuHo
[6] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6GuEswXOXo&NR=1

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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