It’s the context. If they had anything in common, values, political beliefs, ethics, sure I could see Mark looking beyond that. I think Trudeau was trying for a James Carville/Mary Matilin kind of opposites attract relationship but I don’t think it worked.
If I were one of Mark’s friends the fact he was marrying a man would not be my issue, it was that he was marrying Chase of all people! They eventually broke up (spoiler alert for decades later) because of the exact reasons one would have expected. If the plot line hadn’t been so focused on the fact that Mark was gay I could have seen Mike or another friend taking him aside and asking him if he really wanted to marry someone whose political (and possibly ethical) beliefs were so diametrically opposed to his own. (Not to mention the fact that Chase is the ugliest gay man that Mark would ever have been likely to meet, but if he had more redeeming qualities I could possibly go with that.)
Actually a lot of people do that, certainly in the region I live in. Neighbors helping each other through natural catastrophes. It doesn’t have much to do with religious affiliation, just need. Also, the World Central Kitchen comes up as another example. And yes, not all religious organizations are like the Christian Nationalists but those are the people who are trying to create a theocracy in the US.
It’s more complicated than that. Laws are being instated that allow discrimination against gay couples if, say, you don’t want to do business with them due to “religious beliefs” (which somehow don’t encompass other things prohibited by the Bible). I knew of a doctor who refused to treat a lesbian mother and child for that very reason.
Not just that long ago. I remember the years – I think it was 2004 – 2013 – when San Francisco tried to establish legal same sex marriage. People would get married and then have their marriages invalidated (and/or later ones banned) by a voter proposition. I remember the lesbian couple who were married in 2004 by then Mayor Gavin Newsom (lesbian activist pioneers Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon) had been together for I believe 55 years. Their marriage was invalidated two months later. I don’t think that Del lived long enough to experience an America with legal same sex marriage.
There are only two men who the women in the strip are ever supposed to want to date: Gunther and Ox. Couldn’t we hope that someday Luann meets her male equivalent of someone like Toni (who was of course considered the ultimate prize won by her brother)?
It’s the context. If they had anything in common, values, political beliefs, ethics, sure I could see Mark looking beyond that. I think Trudeau was trying for a James Carville/Mary Matilin kind of opposites attract relationship but I don’t think it worked.