31 arguments agast gay marriage (and why they’re all wrong) | New Humanist

Contents:

• I’M GAY AND I’M AGAST GAY MARRIAGE
• BEG AGAST GAY MARRIAGE DON'T MAKE YOU A HOMOPHOBE
• SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
• 31 ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE (AND WHY THEY’RE ALL WRONG)
• CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR

I’M GAY AND I’M AGAST GAY MARRIAGE

The posts, and the way they spread across the ter, spoke to jt how much the culture at large wants to see queer people the better part of a , gay marriage was the rallyg cry for the queer liberatn movement: The theory held that this major legal tone would burst the dam and give way to a flood of total equaly. I Don’t Thk Gay People Should Get Married (or Straight People)A month or two after that nversatn, I met up wh another iend for a walk. “It feels like all the gay people are shg to get married, and what is marriage but a heterosexual ncept, one that is built on a history of female opprsn and patriarchal ntrol?

In that way, marriage is centivized to gays and straights alike who seek legal secury for their children, healthre benefs and surance payouts.

BEG AGAST GAY MARRIAGE DON'T MAKE YOU A HOMOPHOBE

The qutn rurfaced last week when Cardal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, claimed on Meet the Prs that the Catholic Church is unfairly “ritured” as anti-gay. The Huffgton Post’s Pl Rshenbh quickly wrote up a rponse, sayg that “The hard realy that Cardal Dolan and all Christians need to face up to is that the Catholic Church along wh every other church whether Orthodox, Prottant or Catholic has been horrifilly, persistently and vehemently anti-gay for almost all of s history.

SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?

”Then Rshenbh hled out a faiar argument: “Let's jt be very clear here —if you are agast marriage equaly you are anti-gay.

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

”As a gay man, I found myself disappoted wh this fn—that anyone wh any sort of moral rervatns about gay marriage is by fn anti-gay. If Rshenbh is right, then that means my parents are anti-gay, many of my relig iends (of all fahs) are anti-gay, the Pope is anti-gay, and—y, we’ll go here—first-century, Jewish theologian J is anti-gay. That’s spe the fact that while some relig people don’t support gay marriage a sacramental sense, many of them are favor of same-sex civil unns and full rights for the parti volved.

CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR

To be sure, most gay people, myself clud, won’t be satisfied until our lovg, monogamo relatnships are graced wh the word “marriage. ” But ’s important to rell that many relig dividuals do support strong civil rights for the gay members of their muni. ” I have no rervatns about my sexualy, so as far as the accatn of homophobia go: that gay ship has already sailed to Disneyland, wh a speedo-clad Tom Daley rved to the ’s “anti-gay” to qutn the arguments of marriage-equaly advot, and if the word “homophobic” is exhsted on me or on pole dissenters, then what should we ll someone who beats up gay people, or prefers not to hire them?

Simply havg rervatns about gay marriage might be anti-gay marriage, but if the rervatns are articulated a rpectful way, I see no reason to dismiss the person holdg those rervatns as anti-gay people. When we hastily label our opposn wh terms like “anti-gay, ” we make an unwarranted leap om the first scriptn to the me, regnizg the distctn between opposg gay marriage and opposg gay people is a natural outgrowth of an ternal distctn: When to my inty, I take re not to rce myself to my sexual orientatn.