Opn | Why I oppose gay marriage - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• THE GAY PEOPLE AGAST GAY MARRIAGE
• THE PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE THE GAY MARRIAGE LAW
• GAYS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE
• CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR
• GROUPS OPPOSED TO GAY RIGHTS RAKE LNS AS STAT BATE ANTI-LGBTQ BILLS
• MAJORY OF AMERINS CONTUE TO OPPOSE GAY MARRIAGE
• CALIFORNIA VOTERS WILL BE ASKED TO REAFFIRM GAY MARRIAGE PROTECTNS ON 2024 BALLOT
• OPN WHY I OPPOSE GAY MARRIAGE

THE GAY PEOPLE AGAST GAY MARRIAGE

After France's first same-sex marriage, and a vote the UK Parliament which puts England and Wal on urse for gay weddgs next summer, two US Supreme Court lgs expected soon uld hasten the advance of same-sex marriage across the Atlantic. But some gay people rema opposed.

THE PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE THE GAY MARRIAGE LAW

"It's monstrably not the same as heterosexual marriage - the relig and social signifince of a gay weddg ceremony simply isn't the same. He don't f the mon stereotype of an opponent of gay like half of his iends, he do not believe that upl of the same genr should marry.

GAYS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE

"I've been to some lovely gay weddgs but apg the tradnal heterosexual weddg is weird and I don't unrstand why anyone wants to do that. A send lg will be ma on the legaly of California's gay marriage while favourable lgs will spark celebratns among pro-marriage supporters across the US, some gay men and women will stead see as a victory for a patriarchal stutn that bears no historil relevance to lbians are opposed to marriage on femist grounds, says Cldia Card, a profsor of philosophy at the Universy of Wisns-Madison, bee they see as an stutn that serv the terts of men more than women. "Gay activists should stead put their energi to environmental issu like climate change, bee there's a chance to make a morally more fensible and more urgent difference.

"We are only one or two generatns away om children g om gay marriage that are also om broken hom, " he says.

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

He believ a more important prry for the gay muny is the rise vlence agast transgenred people. "I'm not ncerned about whether I n get married but whether I will die the street at the hands of homophob. "Support for gay marriage among Amerins general has risen above 50% acrdg to Gallup, but what the figure is among gay people is harr to quantify.

A muny ma up of lns of people is bound to hold a range of views on any subject, but will surprise many that some of the people who on the face of stand to ga the most om gay marriage should oppose . And the ntrary views are not often the UK, Daily Mail lumnist Andrew Pierce says that for speakg out agast gay marriage the past, he has been attacked as a homophobe and Uncle Tom, spe a long history of champng gay strongly believ that civil partnerships - troduced 2005 to give same-sex upl equal legal rights - are enough. " He thks there are more gay people agreement wh him than people may thk - at a dner party he hosted for 11 gay iends, only one was favour of marriage, one was uncid and the rt were agast, he says.

In France, gay men and women joed the protts that preced and followed this year's troductn of same-sex marriage.

GROUPS OPPOSED TO GAY RIGHTS RAKE LNS AS STAT BATE ANTI-LGBTQ BILLS

A webse lled Homovox featured 12 gay men and women opposed to , wh some of them cg a belief that children benef most om oppose-sex many years, the nservative stutn of marriage was never on the gay mpaign agenda, says activist Yasm Nair, who -found a group provotively named Agast Equaly. But beme an objective the early 1990s - regretfully, her view - when the movement emerged om the seismic shock of the Aids epimic, pleted of polil gay people who are favour of same-sex marriage believe anythg short of marriage is not rarely hear arguments agast by gay people themselv, says Stampp Corb, publisher of magaze LGBT Weekly, who se strong parallels wh the civil rights movement.

"So when I hear LGBT people sayg the same thg: 'I don't thk gay and lbian people should get married', is different om slav sayg: 'I don't thk slav should have the abily to get married'? And the US, the notn of "separate but equal" rekdl memori of segregatn and the creatn of send-class so many different pots of view on a subject that has long divid Ameri, perhaps the bate jt unrl the obv - gay people are like everyone n follow the Magaze on Twter and on Facebook.

Two years earlier, he voted to cut off feral funds to schools that teach the acceptance of homosexualy.

MAJORY OF AMERINS CONTUE TO OPPOSE GAY MARRIAGE

Bin, an off-hand rponse to a qutn, wonred if homosexuals the ary or ernment were potential secury today, Mr. Lears that his history on gay rights has fad to the mist. If he is elected print, said Chad Griff, a polil nsultant and longtime gay rights lear, Mr.

Bin, 77, grew up an era when homosexualy, the word routely ed at the time, was often viewed as a s and even a n slip to dated generalizatns about gay and lbian life, as he did an terview wh Anrson Cooper at an L. Talkg about what San Francis was like “15, 20 years ago, ” he said that the cy, wh s large muny of gay men and lbians, was “all about, well, you know, gay bathho, ” addg, “It’s all about round-the-clock sex. “There’s no polil barometer that would have told him to get ahead of the Whe Hoe on this, ” said Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., who is gay and ran agast Mr.

CALIFORNIA VOTERS WILL BE ASKED TO REAFFIRM GAY MARRIAGE PROTECTNS ON 2024 BALLOT

Bin, then a Delaware senator, lent his name to legislatn that me to be known as one of the biggt legislative setbacks for the gay rights movement s history. His mg about gay men and lbians as secury risks 1973, and his support for a measure rtrictg how homosexualy was prented to schoolchildren, reflects the kd of attus that gay and lbian activists had to battle durg the early s of the movement. Tmp’s admistratn, by ntrast, urged the Supreme Court, unsuccsfully, not to extend the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s protectns agast workplace discrimatn to gay and transgenr people.

Bin’s own history on gay rights — along wh llg Mike Pence, the nservative vice print, a “cent guy” — ma him vulnerable to cricism om the left as he sought the Democratic printial nomatn. “As queer people, we abhor the way that Bin, his eagerns to reach across the aisle, wds up beg an apologist for homophob like Mike Pence, ” Cynthia Nixon, the actrs and activist who challenged Andrew M. “I st a vote agast the so-lled Defense of Marriage Act, which was a homophobic act brought by the right wg, ” Mr.

”From the first weeks after the rts at the Stonewall Inn and the start of the morn-day gay rights movement, L.

OPN WHY I OPPOSE GAY MARRIAGE

Lears lled for gay men and lbians to e out. He has officiated at two gay weddgs, cludg 2017 when Henry R. Bin’s standg among gay and lbian activists was his appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Prs” as vice print 2012 when, rponse to a qutn, he said he supported same-sex marriage.

He is the -thor of “Out for Good, ” a history of the morn gay rights movement. More about Adam NagourneyA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 13 of the New York edn wh the headle: As Bin Evolved on Gay Rights, the Country Went Wh Him. More pennts who lean toward the Democratic Party (81%) favor gay marriage than Democrats (71%).