Why the battle for gay marriage was won so easily - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
• WHY THE BATTLE FOR GAY MARRIAGE WAS WON SO EASILY
• 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?
• THE ONLY ARGUMENT AGAST GAY MARRIAGE (AND WHY IT NEEDS TO END)
• THE TOP SIX ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE (AND WHY THEY ALL FAIL)
• GAY MARRIAGE: THEOLOGIL AND MORAL ARGUMENTS
• HOW SAFE IS GAY MARRIAGE? ADVOT FEAR CREASGLY NSERVATIVE URT
• GAY MARRIAGE

SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?

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 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.

WHY THE BATTLE FOR GAY MARRIAGE WAS WON SO EASILY

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. 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].

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.

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

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. What if the fg gay rights mand of the past generatn had not been equal marriage rights but an affirmative-actn program for employment areas — say, the feral ernment — where gay men and lbians had suffered historic discrimatn? Even as nservativ fight for relig-liberty exemptns om the new norms around same-sex marriage, such as those the Supreme Court is nsirg a challenge om a Catholic social-servic agency that ref to place foster children gay fai, they’ve effectively nced feat the broar war over the earlier civil rights projects to which the qut for marriage equaly was often pared — notably, for women’s sufage and racial segregatn — not only took much longer to reach their goals but also appeared to leave a ridue of unrolved nflict even after the nstutnal issu were settled.

BEG AGAST GAY MARRIAGE DON'T MAKE YOU A HOMOPHOBE

In the sprg of 1996, Whe Hoe talkg pots on the topic — which Print Bill Clton personally approved — argued that the print “do not believe is appropriate for srce feral rourc to be voted to providg spoal benefs to partners gay and lbian relatnships. In pretrial statements, the state attorney general’s office dned a range of potential ratnal: that Hawaii thori had an tert ensurg that the state’s legal relatnships were regnized other jurisdictns; that the state had an tert furtherg procreatn wh marriage; that heterosexual marriag were better for children; that the islands’ tourist enomy uld suffer if Hawaii beme Lake Tahoe for gay and lbian none of the ratnal managed to persua judg — eher Hawaii or subsequent succsful challeng to marriage laws Vermont, Massachetts, Connecticut, California and Iowa.

” But afterward, even the most cynil observers of events Massachetts and the stat that followed s lead uld not pot to any societal y that gay marriage both the legal and polil spher, opponents were forced to shrk the circle of those expected to feel direct harm om lettg gay men and lbians marry. Even if simple exposure to gay fai ed harm to children (and gay-marriage opponents uld never mter anythg beyond njecture to support that claim), they did not brg much to the fight agast same-sex marriage as voters, donors or the same time, the aln of those vted legalizg same-sex marriage not only broaned, but their vtment the oute epened. This clud not jt gay upl who wanted to marry — drawn to the unique material benefs and symbolic power the stutn offered — but their fai and muni who saw marriage as a source of stabily, and even employers who wanted to synchronize their benefs wh the law and standardize them across state l.

ARE THERE SCIENTIFIC REASONS TO OPPOSE GAY MARRIAGE?

Gay rights advot and others say that gay and lbian people want to get married for the same reasons that straight people do – they want to be rg, stable relatnships, they want to build a life and even start a fay wh someone else. I don’t thk there is an issue that is a tougher issue for people to stand up agast Amerin culture today than this one, both om the standpot of the mastream media and the popular culture nmng you for your – they n e all sorts of words to scribe you – tolerant, bigot, homophobe, hater. 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.

” 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?

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. 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. 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.

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

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. 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. Backg up this argument, Anton Slia offered that there is ‘nsirable disagreement’ about whether gays should be able to raise children; he is most likely self-referencg his own wrg, as he did wh his racial entlement remark. ’ As a natnal discsn this might be te, but as a policy posn sired by gays, this is eher blatant cricism or a soclogil blunr…or, more srily, a total disnnect om the untry he ris matters about this cisn is not what a dive thory has stated about the fe prt on a marriage certifite, but how we nduct ourselv as a natn.

THE TOP SIX ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE (AND WHY THEY ALL FAIL)

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. 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.

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 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. Lbian and gay muni, and the femist muni wh which they have historilly overlapped, have long celebrated the valu of sexual diversy over the sexual nformy reprented by marriage and the ethil importance of sexual straight-talkg rather than the double-standards so equently observed marriage’s vicy.

It is large part bee of femist and gay novatns livg that marriage today is creasgly unrstood not as a relig but a social relatn; characterised not by male domatn but equaly and mutualy between the sex; valued not terms of s ntractual basis but terms of s ongog ntributn to a person’s sense of well-beg; and mataed not until ath-do--part but for as long as both parti fd satisfactn .

GAY MARRIAGE: THEOLOGIL AND MORAL ARGUMENTS

”John Arthur, an ALS patient, and Jim Obergefell, partners for more than 20 years, are married on a medil plane Maryland Hartong / Ccnati Enquirer via AP fileAdvocy groups were quick to h back at the two nservative jtic, wh the Human Rights Campaign, the untry’s largt gay rights group, sayg a statement that Thomas and Alo had “renewed their war on LGBTQ rights and marriage equaly, as the urt hangs the balance. ”“She says she will not impose her personal beliefs on the law, and she will le for the law as is wrten, and I believe her bee she has a track rerd of dog that, as do many of the nservative jtic, ” he safe is gay marriage?

When Gallup first polled Amerins on the topic of gay marriage, 1996, only 27 percent said they were favor of also noted there was an crease support for workplace protectns for LGBTQ people, which the urt recently led favor of June’s Bostock cisn, termg that Tle VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects agast workplace discrimatn based on sexual orientatn and genr were surprised when Gorsuch, a Tmp appotee, voted favor of those protectns, and fact wrote the argued that many “misread Gorsuch, ” whom he lled “not your tradnal social nservative” but rather a “libertarian nservative, ” hence his cisn on that se g through a “pla readg of a statute rather than a large nstutnal exercise. They pot out, for stance, that homosexual upl who have been together for years often fd themselv whout the basic rights and privileg that are currently enjoyed by heterosexual upl who legally marry — om the sharg of health and pensn benefs to hospal visatn rights.

The Catholic Church and evangelil Christian groups have played a leadg role public opposn to gay marriage, while male Prottant church and other relig groups wrtle wh whether to orda gay clergy and perform same-sex marriage ceremoni. Ined, the ordatn and marriage of gay persons has been a growg wedge between the socially liberal and nservative wgs of the Epispal and Prbyterian church, leadg some nservative ngregatns and even whole dc to break away om their natnal church. However, a 2006 Pew survey found that sizable majori of whe male Prottants (66%), Catholics (63%) and those whout a relig affiliatn (78%) favor allowg homosexual upl to enter to civil unns that grant most of the legal rights of marriage whout the tle.

HOW SAFE IS GAY MARRIAGE? ADVOT FEAR CREASGLY NSERVATIVE URT

The spark that started the bate me om Hawaii 1993 when the state’s Supreme Court led that an existg law banng same-sex marriage would be unnstutnal unls the state ernment uld show that had a pellg reason for discrimatg agast gay and lbian upl. Although the bate over gay marriage for a while seemed to fa om the public eye, the issue was sudnly and dramatilly tapulted back to the headl November 2003 when the hight state urt Massachetts led that the state’s nstutn guaranteed gay and lbian upl the right to marry.

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. ” 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.

GAY MARRIAGE

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. 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.

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. Kansas and Texas were next 2005, and 2006 saw seven more stat passg Constutnal amendments agast gay towards the end of the , gay marriage beme legal var stat, cludg Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont (the first state to approve by legislative means) and New Hampshire.