"I'm sorry honey, I love you and I want to marry you, but it just wouldn't be right for us to get married when gay couples are denied that right."

This is the very reason I have not married Brad Pitt.

Bah. Me and my girl, we didn't bother to get married. We incorporated. It is actually much more binding, and has tax advantages too, if you're running a business alongside your personal life and do it right.

Social conservative types still look down on us.

Any chance, David Bernstein, that Brad Pitt actually believes in what he is saying and doing?

You might find his beliefs laughable,
but lots of people legitimately hold strong beliefs that others do not. It's not for us to judge.

(in other words: Any chance that Mr. Pitt just might have stronger beliefs and has found a way to express them, making him a better man than Bernstein? Sure, he got married and is duly providing for his wife and daughter "thePapa...tradition!" -- but Mr. Pitt may just be looking beyond himself. I wonder how the young kids in the world would spin this one... somehow committment phobic is laughable when you're talking Pitt and Jolie.)

Mr. Pitt just might have stronger beliefs and has found a way to express them, making him a better man

Fred Phelps has even stronger beliefs and has found many ways to express them. Does that make him a better man too?

The point of my post has nothing to do with whether Mr. Pitt is sincere or not.

Professor Bernstein,
I don't think it's fair to call it a "silent protest" considering that he publicly announced it and it is making enough waves to be mentioned here. With that said, I'm not sure how much effect this is going to have on anything. Many conversatives (and yes I realize I'm generalizing here) discount anything that actors say as being more of that "stuff from liberal Hollywood."

I can't say I've followed the Aniston/Pitt/Jolie et al. saga any more than what I see on the cover of the Enquirer while checking out at the grocery store, but it's Pitt, not me, who made a public issue of their non-marriage. But the point of the post was that this potential excuse comes from Brad Pitt, not that Pitt himself was necessarily using it as an excuse.

"But the point of the post was that this potential excuse comes from Brad Pitt, not that Pitt himself was necessarily using it as an excuse."

Even with that qualification, I would still argue that this "potential excuse" comes from the conniving little mind who would twist Mr. Pitt's example for his own purposes of not committing.

You can just as easily envision another young man adopting Mr. Pitt's stance, and buying into the idea that these are sincerely held beliefs -- naive, young, ill-advised or not.

And believe it or not, I can actually imagine a young woman -- presumably like Jolie here -- who would not only accept but encourage this sincerely held view.

Not saying that has to be my stance or yours -- different strokes for different folks and all that. You are aware that the "unmarried" taboo in American society has lessened, for better or worse, right Mr.Bernstein?

Personally, I think it's for the better -- certificates of bastardry, "illegitimate" children -- those were really ugly judgmental times. If nobody is asking the state to pay for the welfare of the child (as surely Mr. Pitt and Ms. Jolie, and plenty of other unmarried parents, will not) and the child is raised in a healthy environment of love, what business is it of mine if someone commits to a monogamous marriage or not? No little brownie points just for that.

Not having read the original story, I kept reading and reading waiting for some hint that this had been reported in jest: an Onion or Borowitz item!

Maybe he actually did go crazy while filming "Seven"

Then why, for the love of God, do you keep posting here?

Perhaps he is posting for the hatred of God.

Thank you Talboito.

I think if you give 20 random people on the street Mr. Bernstein's original post, they will wonder why he felt a need to mischaracterize or be skeptical of Mr.Pitt's views.

And thanks also for sharing that last paragraph Talboito. Obviously the worlds in which we, and the Volokh crew live, don't often overlap. What a pity for them to be so isolated like that, thinking everyone is of like mind...

Act-ally

Yep. Once the allies are acting (if they're not foreclosed from the democratic process in the future through amended Constitutions as Judge Wilkerson warns), I suspect the Volokhites will be scambling to spin in the other direction. Gotta stay in good with the crowd, of course.

Can't stand up and state your own opinions yourself; have to muddy the waters by implying these were someone else's views -- here Mr.Pitt.

I just wonder if it's so easy to pull out this style on these cheap little posts, how often this goes in in those highly technical legal-type posts? This is how credibility loss starts...

I've always thought of protest actions as involving at least some real risk, perhaps personal suffering or even death. For example: conducting a sit-in in a place where such an action is not allowed, other illegal conduct such as flying a doctored version of the flag, fasting, blowing up a building, hijacking a plane, and of course public suicide. Without some risk, the protest seems meaningless. The next day it rains and I decide to stay at home rather than visit the public library, I will tell myself that I am protesting high taxes in Massachusetts.

And why the pc right is often considered self-righteous....

In "the sixties", some men went to antiwar protests out of sincere belief, others were looking to get laid. The fact that the former existed doesn't negate the existence of the latter, and the fact that some men will sincerely decline to get married because they think it's a civil rights statement doesn't negate the possibility that others will find it a convenient excuse.

Wait, Anon252,
you mean those men just making excuses back then didn't even need to cast doubt on a celebrity's actions to legitimize their own?

What a concept.

I think Brad just confessed that Angelina won't marry him.

As I understand it, his actual statement was "until everyone who wants to get married can legally do so". I presume this includes the retro-Mormons in the Four Corners region.

"I wouldn't know who Brad Pitt was if he came up and bit my ass..."

I think you might be getting him confused with Marv Alpert. Mr. Pitt is bigger and better looking. :)

An interesting comment considering Brad Pitt, unlike e.g. Sheryl Crow, is not known for running around making social statements about anything. However, upon reading the source article, it's not clear whether Brad is stating his own position rather than Angelina's position. Here's the quote:

"Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able," the 42-year-old actor reveals in Esquire magazine's October issue, on newsstands Sept. 19."

He doesn't say why this is their position and it's perfectly possible that it's Jolie's position, with Pitt being indifferent to the issue. The quote is even consistent with him wanting to get married immediately, e.g "I'd like to get married immediately but Angelina doesn't want to until gay people can get married as well, therefore [insert quote]."

If I had to guess, I'd say it's more likely that Angelina cares about same sex marriage than Brad does, or at least that she cares about it more than he does.

If they really wanted to get married, wouldn't they just go to Massachusetts to do it?

triticale - "everyone" would also include adult brother-sister combinations who wish to get married. Of course, that might just create another reason for Anglina not to marry Brad.

I don't think "healthy relationship" and "Angelina Jolie" should be used in the same sentence.
summary article

Nick

"If they really wanted to get married, wouldn't they just go to Massachusetts to do it?"

Think that one through. You can do it.

If you accept the fact that they're acting in good faith in their beliefs, why would running out of the country or even to MA make an effective protest? If you don't understand this, out of cynicism or just not following, good luck out there.

Brad Pitt is the actor with the really cute ass in "Thelma and Louise". Oh, and he's in a bunch of other movies too.

It may not be important to know this sort of thing, but people who don't live under rocks know this sort of thing. :)

actually, I live in an apartment, and work in the film business- and I know the accountant's name, which is preferable to giving a hoot as to Brad Pitt's identity.

I buy my own groceries...
:))

To carry Brad's statement to it's logical conclusion:

"Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able,"

translates as:

"Brad Pitt says he and Angie will 'consider' marriage when Utah frees Warren Steed Jeffs."

Everyone is everyone.

"I'm sorry honey, I love you and I want to marry you, but it just wouldn't be right for us to get married when gay couples are denied that right."

How about ...
"I'm sorry honey, the feminists say marriage is an oppressive institution foisted on women by the patriarchy. I love you and I want to marry you, but it just wouldn't be right for me to subject you to such oppression."

These people's faces are everywhere!

But they only have first names on the magazine covers. To me Pitt brings to mind a past Prime Minister of England.

DB

This idea seems like it would be especially useful for the commitment phobes in all those couples who would get a marriage bonus (they're not nearly as fun to talk about, but there are just as many of them as there are penalty-types!)

Now, the commitment-phobe can even justify *forgoing* extra cash!

Jonah

Maybe there are a lot of straight men out there who refuse to marry until their gay brothers can tie the knot. Afterall, that would explain the right-wing claim that gay marriage will be a civilization-altering development.