Gay Marriage: Theologil and Moral Arguments - Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

Contents:

• THE VIEW STAR REVEALS WHY SHE AGRE WH SUPREME COURT LG FOR SIGNER WHO OPPOS GAY MARRIAGE
• WHY NOT ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE?
• GAY MARRIAGE: PROS, CONS, AND WHERE BOTH PARTI STAND
• NO, POLYGAMY ISN’T THE NEXT GAY MARRIAGE
• GAY MARRIAGE: THEOLOGIL AND MORAL ARGUMENTS
• SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
• TEN REASONS TO SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE
• 31 ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE (AND WHY THEY’RE ALL WRONG)

THE VIEW STAR REVEALS WHY SHE AGRE WH SUPREME COURT LG FOR SIGNER WHO OPPOS GAY MARRIAGE

If homosexual “marriage” is universally accepted as the prent step sexual “eedom, ” what logil arguments n be ed to stop the next steps of ct, pedophilia, btialy, and other forms of unnatural behavr? The railroadg of same-sex “marriage” on the Amerin people mak creasgly clear what homosexual activist Pl Varnell wrote the Chigo Free Prs:"The gay movement, whether we acknowledge or not, is not a civil rights movement, not even a sexual liberatn movement, but a moral revolutn aimed at changg people's view of homosexualy. In tellectually opposg dividuals or anizatns promotg the homosexual agenda, our only tent is the fense of tradnal marriage, the fay, and the prec remnants of Christian civilizatn.

"Basilly, what says is, bee somethg like creatg a webse would be eedom of exprsn or speech, this would also — let's flip on s head — would protect a gay web signer om havg to create a bigoted, anti-LGBTQ webse. "You don't know somebody's gay unls you ask them, so if the web signer says, 'Um, we're booked up, ' they don't have to al wh that other stuff this woman ma this about. Acrdg to a report by the Amerin Amy of Pediatrics, "A growg body of scientific lerature monstrat that children who grow up wh 1 or 2 gay and/or lbian parents fare as well emotnal, gnive, social, and sexual functng as do children whose parents are heterosexual.

WHY NOT ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE?

Acrdg to the prs release for the issue, "Amendments that rtrict civil marriage rights of same-sex upl — such as Proposn 8 that recently passed California — have led to higher levels of strs and anxiety among lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr adults, as well as among their fai of orig, acrdg to several new studi to be published by the Amerin Psychologil Associatn. Sharon Sl Rostosky, at the Universy of Kentucky, "The rults of this study monstrate that livg a state that has jt passed a marriage amendment is associated wh higher levels of psychologil strs for lbian, gay and bisexual cizens, " Rostosky said. Adam* said was dangero to e out as gay his home untry and feared beg forced to an arranged marriage wh a said he was "so lucky" to wed his soulmate, Ray, Manchter and wish everyone uld marry who they love.

There are more than 60 untri wh laws that crimalise same-sex sexual acts acrdg to the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn, cludg Sdi Arabia. 'Authentilly myself'Ray said he had also stggled growg up gay the 1970s and 80s England, which was "tough" said his relig school "dmmed to you, 'you are gog to hell'" Adam returned home to Sdi Arabia, spe beg more than 3, 000 apart and later rtricted by the Covid-19 panmic, they kept touch daily and the romance years ago, Ray proposed on a vio ll and after succsfully applyg for a UK fiancé visa, Adam moved to Manchter December 2022.

Adam said he had been aaid to even wear lours his home untry so the first thg he did when he moved was start to "grow my mullet, got my ears pierced and booked appotments for tattoos" relled how, ntrast, one of his gay iends Sdi had been forced to marry a woman, addg: "It has ed not only his life but the life of his wife. The uple, who live London, said a "really betiful memory" was on the way home when one of their sons shouted out of the black b wdow to Trafalgar Square, "My dads jt got married" and cheered "Yay, gay marriage".

GAY MARRIAGE: PROS, CONS, AND WHERE BOTH PARTI STAND

It has been observed that our Parliament routely legislat rpect of socially ntent issu whout rortg to plebisc, cludg:“Women were given the vote, the ath penalty abolished, homosexualy crimalised, no-flt divorce troduced, the Whe Atralia Policy reversed and tentn centr for asylum seekers set up  the Pacific Islands – all whout the mandate of a plebisce. Whout any l requirg Parliament to enact legislatn nsistent wh the rult of the plebisce, is a risky and potls will be divisiveThe public nature of the bate leadg up to a plebisce is likely to clu abive and discrimatory had a glimpse of this when the NSW Edutn Mister banned the screeng of the documentary Gayby Baby at schools, and The Daily Telegraph ran a piece assertg that:“The drive to create the fantasy that homosexual fai are the norm has e om the polilly left-leang Teachers Feratn which is also phg the Safe Schools Coaln, another polil ont group, which claims that anyone not volved promotg safety for the “same-sex attracted, tersex and genr diverse young people, staff, fai and muni” are bigots.

For stance, 45% of adults the Silent Generatn (those born between 1928 and 1945) favor allowg gays and lbians to wed, pared wh 74% of Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996). Sce then, several other European untri – cludg England and Wal, France, Ireland, all of Sndavia, Spa and, most recently, Atria, Germany and Malta – have legalized gay marriage.

In 1996, Bill Clton signed to law the Defense Of Marriage Act, which permted state law to not regnize same-sex marriag performed other stat, as well as preventg the feral ernment om regnizg gay marriage at the feral level. Massachetts was the first state the Uned Stat to perm gay marriage after the Massachetts Supreme Judicial Court led that allowg only oppose-sex marriag was discrimatory and illegal. On June 26, 2015, gay marriage was legalized all stat of the Uned Stat, natnwi, when the Supreme Court hand down the Obergefell cisn statg that same-sex marriage was protected unr two cls of the Fourteenth Amendment.

NO, POLYGAMY ISN’T THE NEXT GAY MARRIAGE

In 1989, Denmark beme the first untry the world to offer civil unns to same-sex partners, which offered some (but not all) marriage rights to gay 2001, the Netherlands passed a bill legalizg gay marriage — the first untry to do so, as well as the first 2003, Belgium legalized same-sex 2003, urts two Canadian provc cid that gay marriage was a nstutnal right Ontar, then Brish Columbia. In 2005, Canada legalized same-sex marriage natnwi — the first untry North Ameri to do 2006, South Ai beme the first Ain untry to legalize same-sex 2010, Argenta beme the first South Amerin untry to legalize gay 2013, New Zealand beme the first Oceanic untry to legalize same-sex 2019, Taiwan beme the first Asian natn to legalize gay recently 2022, all Mexin jurisdictns had legalized gay marriage, eher by legislatn, executive actn, or a Supreme Court orr. However, transgenr and gay rights are not equal across all Mexin stat and Augt 2022, the small untry of Andorra legalized gay marriage, but won’t take effect until Febary 2023.

On the oppose si of the pollg spectm, Ecuador’s urts legalized gay marriage 2019, spe s cizens disapprovg of gay marriage 51% to 23% — the lowt approval ratg any untry wh equal marriage rights. Scholars and the general public beme creasgly terted the issue durg the late 20th century, a perd when attus toward homosexualy and laws regulatg homosexual behavur were liberalized, particularly wtern Europe and the Uned issue of same-sex marriage equently sparked emotnal and polil clash between supporters and opponents. Cultur that openly accepted homosexualy, of which there were many, generally had nonmaral tegori of partnership through which such bonds uld be exprsed and socially regulated.

Relig and secular expectatns of marriage and sexualy Over time the historil and tradnal cultur origally rerd by the lik of Bachofen and Man slowly succumbed to the homogenizatn imposed by lonialism. In other s, the cultural homogeney supported by the domant relign did not rult the applitn of doctre to the civic realm but may nohels have fostered a smoother seri of discsns among the cizenry: Belgium and Spa had legalized same-sex marriage, for stance, spe official opposn om their predomant relig stutn, the Roman Catholic Church.

GAY MARRIAGE: THEOLOGIL AND MORAL ARGUMENTS

Most of the world religns have at some pots their histori opposed same-sex marriage for one or more of the followg stated reasons: homosexual acts vlate natural law or dive tentns and are therefore immoral; passag sacred texts nmn homosexual acts; and relig tradn regniz only the marriage of one man and one woman as valid.

Blandly assertg that there's no good reason to oppose polygamy once gay upl n marry mak no more sense than sayg there's no reason to oppose date rape or securi d once gay upl n marry.

The trouble that gay-marriage opponents kept nng to was that they uld not surmount this very low bar, bee they uldn't expla how preventg gay upl om marryg served any of the state's claimed goals.

SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?

There might nceivably (although not likely) be a se for takg the trouble to do all that msy and nfg rewirg if the moral claim of polygamy were remotely as strong as to the moral claim of gay marriage. The prciple on which gay marriage won social and judicial approval—the prciple that dividuals and society are better off when everyone has the opportuny to marry—at agast polygamy, not for .

TEN REASONS TO SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE

Statistics suggt, however, that gays and lbians are not creasg number, if we accept the bt rearch data of Edward Lmann, who puts the number at about 5% of the populatn1. What has grown is a much greater acceptance of gays and lbians our culture, as well as the social and enomic eedom for gays and lbians to emerge om the closet that has nfed them for so many generatns. The recent addn of same sex mment ceremoni the Sunday New York Tim weddg and engagement announcements and the populary of shows as "Will and Grace" and "Queer Eye…" dite a shift our culture's attu toward gays and lbians.

My tent was two-fold: first to ve stunts to dialogue wh people different om themselv; send, to work to elimate, whatever small way I uld, homophobic attus on our mp and our muny. My purpose today is not to support or fend gay and lbian marriag—ed, many gays and lbians do not want to marry—but simply suggt a theologil approach that might open up the possibily for greater Christian acceptance of, and eccliastil approval for, same sex unns.

31 ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE (AND WHY THEY’RE ALL WRONG)

"Consiratns Regardg Proposals to Give Legal Regnn to Unns Between Homosexual Persons" (CDF): nnot promote any form of civil regnn of same-sex unns, formally or materially. Catholic sistence: one n uphold the digny of homosexual people while not upholdg their right-to-marry; no unjt discrimatn towards homosexuals is acceptable; they mt be treated wh rpect, and their rights fend. US public opn had shifted signifintly over the years, om 27% approval of gay marriage 1996 to 55% 2015, the year beme legal throughout the Uned Stat, to 61% 2019.

Proponents of legal gay marriage ntend that gay marriage bans are discrimatory and unnstutnal, and that same-sex upl should have accs to all the benefs enjoyed by different-sex upl. On July 25, 2014 Miami-Da County Circu Court Judge Sarah Zabel led Florida’s gay marriage ban unnstutnal and stated that the ban “serv only to hurt, to discrimate, to prive same-sex upl and their fai of equal digny, to label and treat them as send-class cizens, and to em them unworthy of participatn one of the fundamental stutns of our society.

The Amerin Psychologil Associatn, Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, and others nclud that legal gay marriage giv upl “accs to the social support that already facilat and strengthens heterosexual marriag, wh all of the psychologil and physil health benefs associated wh that support. A 2010 analysis found that after their stat had banned gay marriage, gay, lbian and bisexual people suffered a 37% crease mood disorrs, a 42% crease alhol-e disorrs, and a 248% crease generalized anxiety disorrs. In July 2012 New York Cy Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that gay marriage had ntributed $259 ln to the cy’s enomy jt a year sce the practice beme legal there July 2011.