Are there scientific reasons to oppose gay marriage? | Psychology | The Guardian

Contents:

• THE TOP 10 ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE: ALL RECEIVE FAILG GRAS!
• BEG AGAST GAY MARRIAGE DON'T MAKE YOU A HOMOPHOBE
• ARE THERE SCIENTIFIC REASONS TO OPPOSE GAY MARRIAGE?
• SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
• THE TOP SIX ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE (AND WHY THEY ALL FAIL)
• GAY MARRIAGE
• THE ONLY ARGUMENT AGAST GAY MARRIAGE (AND WHY IT NEEDS TO END)
• THE 6 MOST RIDICULO ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE
• HOW SAFE IS GAY MARRIAGE? ADVOT FEAR CREASGLY NSERVATIVE URT
• WHY THE BATTLE FOR GAY MARRIAGE WAS WON SO EASILY
• IS SUPREME COURT’S “GAY WEDDG” CASE BUILT ON A LIE? MAN AT CENTER OF THE STORY SAYS HE’S STRAIGHT
• ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE

THE TOP 10 ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE: ALL RECEIVE FAILG GRAS!

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.

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.

BEG AGAST GAY MARRIAGE DON'T MAKE YOU A HOMOPHOBE

” 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.

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. If he were disgted by gay people, or thought they should be imprisoned, or wanted to see the gayns beat out of them, then that might implite his human inty, part bee would suggt a troublg lack of passn.

ARE THERE SCIENTIFIC REASONS TO OPPOSE GAY MARRIAGE?

I need more a gay man thkg through the issue of marriage equaly, I’ve e to the ncln that, although ’s a no-braer for me, this issue is plited to a great number of people. To monize as anti-gay the lns of Amerins currently dog the difficult work of thkg through their nvictns is, my opn, very ’s te that as an LGBT person, I am Otherized agast the sexual norm.

Whatever your views on homosexual sex (and if you're viewg a lot while plag about , your objectns are already somewhat qutnable) applyg the same ratnale to same-sex marriage is farcil. Rarely if ever will a male prayg mantis walk his dghter down an aisle of some scriptn, although there uld be several reasons for some of the above lks show, our unrstandg of "natural" relatnships often seem to be based largely on misrmatn and myth, so tryg to apply this notn to an entirely human nstct mak ltle or no sense, will lead to more qutnable unns beg more monIt has been argued that gay marriage will lead to a slippery slope of ever more qutnable unns beg legally regnised, such as between man and animal, woman and toaster, child and quasar, horse and the tangible ncept of nostalgia, stuff like that.

SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?

At prent, there is no feasible mechanism known to science where the legalisg of gay marriage would imbue animals wh nscns and a sense of dividual is also the matter of more problematic human relatnships like polygamy and ct. There's no reason to penalise others for your poor marriage uld hr scientific progrsNot an argument put forward by most anti-gay marriage prottors, but is possible legalisg gay marriage uld hr scientific progrs.

In this stance, uld be homosexual scientists, unable to get legally married so ntug wh their reers, which are pickg up the slack and matag scientific scenar assum that same-sex marriage not beg legally regnised prents an imperable barrier to gay people hopg to enter to long term relatnships and start fai. You may feel that homosexual relatnships are not "real" relatnships, and that's your prerogative, but this is purely a subjective viewpot and nnot be verified or supported by the available sex marriage is TOO naturalIt is possible that everyone is approachg this argument om the wrong directn. 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 TOP SIX ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE (AND WHY THEY ALL FAIL)

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.

GAY MARRIAGE

In 2012, the Williams Instute at the Universy of California at Los Angel (UCLA) found that the first five years after Massachetts legalized gay marriage 2004, same-sex weddg expendur (such as venue rental, weddg k, etc. 2016 printial ndidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fra stated that civil unns are aquate as an equivalent to marriage: “Benefs are beg btowed to gay upl [ civil unns]… I believe we need to rpect those who believe that the word marriage has a spirual foundatn… Why n’t we rpect and tolerate that while at the same time sayg ernment nnot btow benefs unequally. Court papers filed July 2014 by attorneys fendg Arizona’s gay marriage ban stated that “the State regulat marriage for the primary purpose of channelg potentially procreative sexual relatnships to endurg unns for the sake of jog children to both their mother and their father… Same-sex upl n never provi a child wh both her blogil mother and her blogil father.

Contrary to the pro gay marriage argument that some different-sex upl nnot have children or don’t want them, even those s there is still the potential to produce children.

THE ONLY ARGUMENT AGAST GAY MARRIAGE (AND WHY IT NEEDS TO END)

Lee Badgett, PhD, Director of the Center for Public Policy and Admistratn at the Universy of Massachetts at Amherst, stated that for many gay activists “marriage means adoptg heterosexual forms of fay and givg up distctively gay fay forms and perhaps even gay and lbian culture. Pla Ettelbrick, JD, Profsor of Law and Women’s Studi, wrote 1989, “Marriage ns ntrary to two of the primary goals of the lbian and gay movement: the affirmatn of gay inty and culture and the validatn of many forms of relatnships.

LGBT activist llective Agast Equaly stated, “Gay marriage ap hetero privilege… [and] creas enomic equaly by perpetuatg a system which ems married begs more worthy of the basics like health re and enomic rights. Queer activist Anrs Zanichkowsky stated June 2013 that the then mpaign for gay marriage “tentnally and malicly eras and exclus so many queer people and cultur, particularly trans and genr non-nformg people, poor queer people, and queer people non-tradnal fai… marriage thks non-married people are viant and not tly servg of civil rights. In Islamic tradn, several hadhs (passag attributed to the Prophet Muhammad) nmn gay and lbian relatnships, cludg the saygs “When a man mounts another man, the throne of God shak, ” and “Sihaq [lbian sex] of women is za [illegimate sexual terurse].

THE 6 MOST RIDICULO ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE

Matt Barber, Associate Dean for Onle Programs at Liberty Universy School of Law, stated, “Every dividual engaged the homosexual liftyle, who has adopted a homosexual inty, they know, tuively, that what they’re dog is immoral, unnatural, and self-stctive, yet they thirst for that affirmatn.

A 2003 set of guil signed by Pope John Pl II stated: “There are absolutely no grounds for nsirg homosexual unns to be any way siar or even remotely analogo to God’s plan for marriage and fay… Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go agast the natural moral law.

On May 17, 2004, the first legal gay marriage the Uned Stat was performed Cambridge, MA between Tanya McCloskey, a massage therapist, and Marcia Kadish, an employment manager at an engeerg firm. I almost didn't clu this argument on the list bee 's fad so dramatilly recent years as untry after untry, state after state has allowed gays and lbians to marry wh no measurable triment to straight marriage or nventnal anythg, philosophilly, the fervor wh which same-sex upl mand to be granted the digny and rpect of legal marriage unrsr the value of marriage and ought to remd straight upl not to take lightly or for granted. And if anythg, enuragg same-sex upl to m to one another for life will crease promiscuo behavr among gay people, should that be of particular funny way of showg rpectThe rrponnce between me and my old iend to which I allud above end genially, but generated yet another lengthy and heated bate the ment thread that didn't end so well.

HOW SAFE IS GAY MARRIAGE? ADVOT FEAR CREASGLY NSERVATIVE URT

Particularly given that such a ncsn at no st to themselvAnd I nfs to but don't apologize for exprsg this view wh great vehemence and for exhibg so ltle patience wh the ia that due to choate and unproven fears, relig dictat and athetic ncerns we ought to ntue for one more day to treat gay people and gay upl as send-class unr the law. Early Years: Same-Sex Marriage Bans In 1970, jt one year after the historic Stonewall Rts that galvanized the gay rights movement, law stunt Richard Baker and librarian Jam McConnell applied for a marriage license Gerald Nelson rejected their applitn bee they were a same-sex uple, and a trial urt upheld his cisn.

WHY THE BATTLE FOR GAY MARRIAGE WAS WON SO EASILY

” This lg effectively blocked feral urts om lg on same-sex marriage for s, leavg the cisn solely the hands of stat, which alt blow after blow to those hopg to see gay marriage beg 1973, for stance, Maryland beme the first state to create a law that explicly f marriage as a unn between a man and woman, a belief held by many nservative relig groups. Though the gay rights movement saw some advancements the 1970s and 1980s—such as Harvey Milk beg the first openly gay man elected to public office the untry 1977—the fight for gay marriage ma ltle headway for many years.

In 1989, the San Francis Board of Supervisors passed an ordance that allowed homosexual upl and unmarried heterosexual upl to register for domtic partnerships, which granted hospal visatn rights and other years later, the District of Columbia siarly passed a new law that allowed same-sex upl to register as domtic partners. C., 1993, the hight urt Hawaii led that a ban on same-sex marriage may vlate that state nstutn’s Equal Protectn Clse—the first time a state urt has ever ched toward makg gay marriage Hawaii Supreme Court sent the se—brought by a gay male uple and two lbian upl who were nied marriage licens 1990—back for further review to the lower First Circu Court, which 1991 origally dismissed the the state tried to prove that there was “pellg state tert” jtifyg the ban, the se would be tied up ligatn for the next three Defense of Marriage Act Opponents of gay marriage, however, did not s on their hnch.

IS SUPREME COURT’S “GAY WEDDG” CASE BUILT ON A LIE? MAN AT CENTER OF THE STORY SAYS HE’S STRAIGHT

Congrs 1996 passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which Print Bill Clton signed to didn’t ban gay marriage outright but specified that only heterosexual upl uld be granted feral marriage benefs.

That is, even if a state ma gay marriage legal, same-sex upl still wouldn’t be able to file e tax jotly, sponsor spo for immigratn benefs or receive spoal Social Secury payments, among many other act was a huge setback for the marriage equaly movement, but transient good news arose three months later: Hawaii Judge Kev S.

ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE

Phg for Change: Civil Unns The next saw a whirlwd of activy on the gay marriage ont, begng wh the year 2000 when Vermont beme the first state to legalize civil unns, a legal stat that provis most of the state-level benefs of years later, Massachetts beme the first state to legalize gay marriage when the Massachetts Supreme Court led that same-sex upl had the right to marry Goodridge v.

2004 was notable for upl many other stat as well, though for the oppose reason: Ten typilly nservative stat, along wh Oregon, enacted state-level bans on gay marriage.