In most public discsns, the issue of same-sex marriage is posed as a simple qutn – for or agast? – where to be for or agast is to be, more or ls, for or agast gay people. Although don’t…
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
Proponents ntend that gay marriage bans are discrimatory and unnstutnal, opponents ague that marriage is primarily for procreatn. * i am against 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. 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. ”Then Rshenbh hled out a faiar argument: “Let's jt be very clear here —if you are agast marriage equaly you are anti-gay. ”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.
BEG AGAST GAY MARRIAGE DON'T MAKE YOU A HOMOPHOBE
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.
SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
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. 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?
31 ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE (AND WHY THEY’RE ALL WRONG)
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. Sure, ’s a huge part of who I am, but I see myself to be larger than my sexual exprsn: I nta my gayns; don’t nta me.
CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR
If ’s te that my gayns is not the most fundamental aspect of my inty as Brandon, then seems to me that someone uld iologilly disapprove of my sexual exprsn while simultaneoly lovg and affirmg my larger inty. This is what Pope Francis was gettg at when he asked, “When God looks at a gay person, do he endorse the existence of this person wh love, or reject and nmn this person? Maybe his distctn between Brandon and Gay Brandon is misguid, but isn’t necsarily malic, and that’s the Schenck, current chairman of the Evangelil Church Alliance, told me that while he believ that marriage is between one man and one woman, this belief is a “source of ternal nflict” and “nsternatn” for him.
” Schenck has no plans to change his social stance on this issue, but he serv as a good remr that not all gay-marriage opponents are unthkg and bigoted.
Sure, there are plenty of relig people who are actually homophobic, and fd their Bible nvenient jtifitn for the bias. But let’s not fet about people like Rob who, though he oppos marriage equaly, appreciat the remr om gay advot “that love is as important as anythg else.