The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage - TIME

Contents:

• THE NSERVATIVE SE FOR GAY MARRIAGE
• RELIG AMERINS SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE
• ANALYSIS: 5 REASONS GAY MARRIAGE IS WNG
• HISTORY OF THE ANTI-GAY MOVEMENT SCE 1977
• POLYAMORY, THE GAY “CONSERVATIVE,” AND "WHERE DO IT STOP?"
• CAN THE EVANGELIL CHURCH EMBRACE GAY UPL?
• THE CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR GAY MARRIAGE
• WHY FOUR JTIC WERE AGAST THE SUPREME COURT'S HUGE GAY-MARRIAGE DECISN
• PRO & CON QUOT: SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?

THE NSERVATIVE SE FOR GAY MARRIAGE

The list of important nservative posns, all relatg back to the fundamental prciple of dividual choice, go on and on: property rights; eedom of associatn; and eedom of speech, when the topic of gay marriage aris, some nservativ have not been nsistent. (Jim Urquhart / Rters)The Supreme Court hears oral arguments on Tuday a se that weighs whether state bans agast same-sex marriage vlate the nstutn’s guarantee of equal protectn for gay and lbian upl.

In addn to the more than three-quarters of the religly unaffiliated who support same-sex marriage, 84 percent of Buddhists, 77 percent of Jews, approximately six ten whe male Prottants (62 percent), whe Catholics (61 percent) and Hispanic Catholics (60 percent), and 56 percent of Eastern Orthodox Christians now support allowg gay and lbian upl to marry the other si of the bate, 68 percent of Jehovah’s Wns, 66 percent of Mormons and whe evangelil Prottants, and more than half of Hispanic and black Prottants oppose same-sex renfigured battle l are also evint the duelg iend-of-the-urt briefs filed by two different groups of relig anizatns—one urgg the urt to overturn bans on same-sex marriage and one argug to uphold them. And among younger whe evangelil Prottants between the ag of 18 and 29, support ss at 45 signifince of this tippg pot—where more relig Amerins than not support allowg gay and lbian upl to marry legally—is difficult to overstate.

After four same-sex upl filed su Wednday (May 21) challengg Montana’s ban on same-sex marriage, neighborg North Dakota is the only state that isn’t facg a challenge to s gay marriage ban — at least not yet.

RELIG AMERINS SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE

Wh relign, the 2003 electn of openly gay Epispal Bishop Gene Robson dramatilly shifted the nversatn about gays learship, and Prbyterians and Lutherans voted to allow gay clergy wh barely a shg. Coupled wh an aggrsive mpaign targeted at gays and lbians to e out to their fai and lleagu, Ameri now has numerable iends, -workers, celebri, siblgs and children that are the new face of the gay movement. “They set an impossible goal for themselv by sayg om day one that the goal of succs would be not one gay marriage on not one square ch of Amerin soil, and that was never gog to happen, ” said Rch, a senr fellow at the Washgton-based Brookgs Instutn.

“There was the evangelil belligerence, often, the last generatn that spoke, for stance, about the gay agenda, which there was this picture, almost as though there is a group of super villas a lair, plottg somewhere the downfall of the fay, ” Moore told a gatherg of journalists March.

Activists who long cried gay rights, often assailg them as a threat to nservative fay valu and procreatn, said they’ve found new alli, particularly their efforts to lim medil re and athletic opportuni for transgenr youth. In the 1970s, Christian sger and anti-gay activist Ana Bryant lnched the “Save Our Children” mpaign to fight back agast a lol Da County, Florida, ordance that banned discrimatn based on sexual orientatn hog and employment. Pl Cameron, former psychology stctor at Universy of Nebraska, begs publishg psdo-scientific pamphlets "provg" that gay people m more serial murrs, molt more children, and tentnally spread diseas.

ANALYSIS: 5 REASONS GAY MARRIAGE IS WNG

At the first Congrsnal heargs on anti-gay vlence, Kathleen Sarris of Indianapolis tells of beg stalked and asslted by a "Christian soldier" who held her at gunpot, beat and raped her for three hours, explag that "he was actg for God; that what he was dog to me was God's revenge on me bee I was a 'queer' and gettg rid of me would save children.

Callg lbians and gay men "the ultimate enemy, " Dannemeyer acc straight people of "surrenrg to this growg army whout a shot, " and predicts gay rights will "plunge our people, and ed the entire Wt, to a dark night of the soul that uld last hundreds of years.

The battle over gay marriage is igned when the Hawaii Supreme Court l that nyg same-sex upl marriage licens vlat "basic human rights" guaranteed the state nstutn — unls the state legislature n show a "pellg reason" to prevent gay marriage.

HISTORY OF THE ANTI-GAY MOVEMENT SCE 1977

The Pk Swastika: Homosexualy the Nazi Party, by fundamentalist activists Stt Lively and Kev Abrams, claims gays weren't victimized the Holot, but stead helped mastermd the extermatn of Jews. A aln of fundamentalist groups led by Coral Ridge Mistri sponsors "Tth Love, " a ln-dollar advertisg mpaign promotg "ex-gay mistri, " which e discreded psychologil methods to "cure" gay people.

"Teletubbi" rtoon character Tky Wky is "outed" as gay a "Parents' Alert" Jerry Falwell's Liberty Journal, which asserts, "He is purple — the gay-pri lor; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle — the gay-pri symbol. On "The 700 Club" two days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Jerry Falwell blam the tragedy on "the Pagans, and the abortnists, and the femists and the gays and lbians who are actively tryg to make that an alternative liftyle.

POLYAMORY, THE GAY “CONSERVATIVE,” AND "WHERE DO IT STOP?"

“We fought so hard and for so long jt to try and get some equaly, wh same sex marriage, gettg rid of sodomy laws, fightg for the right to foster and adopt as gays, fightg to be cludg the equaly act that was jt passed!! “All the negative reactns are knee jerk and feel eerily siar to ments I’ve heard om olr generatns talkg about children of terracial and gay upl: ‘Let them be together, but ’s not fair to the children. The straight-actg gay criqu the flamboyant queer, a fortable uple tells others not to seek marriage equaly, and this se the married or monogamo gay wants the poly muny to keep s llective head down and rema the closet.

(Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Imag)There is a distct difference how groups on the left and right are reactg to a bill that supporters say would enhance protectns for both gay rights and relig Senate has advanced the Rpect for Marriage Act (RFMA) past a key obstacle, overg the filibter wh 62 vot last week, cludg om 12 Republins.

CAN THE EVANGELIL CHURCH EMBRACE GAY UPL?

“I hate the Senate bill and we need to pass, ” wrote Charlotte Clymer, a transgenr thor who worked for the Human Rights Campaign, one of the natn’s largt gay rights argued that the bill do not “dify” gay marriage, but noted would protect the marriage licens of gay upl who are married now if the U.

(Joy Asi/AP Imag for Human Rights Campaign)And, Clymer said, full feral regnn by Congrs of gay marriage is not likely anytime soon as long as 60 vot are required to pass anythg unr the on the right, opns of the legislatn are spl. There is a aln of relig groups that back the bill, or that back the relig liberty provisns and want the bill to pass spe their belief that their fah teachgs do not allow them to support gay group clus the Natnal Associatn of Evangelils, the Church of J Christ of Latter-Day Sats, the Unn of Orthodox Jewish Congregatns of Ameri, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Council for Christian Colleg and Universi, the And Campaign and the 1st Amendment of the groups “thk like relig mori, ” said Tim Schultz, print of the 1st Amendment Partnership, a relig eedom advocy group. (Rick Bowmer/AP)The RFMA ensur that if Obergefell were overturned, marriage licens would still be valid and stat that have legalized gay marriage would still be able to issue licens the future.

THE CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR GAY MARRIAGE

For liberals, is Thomas’s opn about overturng on the right argue that the RFMA do make more likely that relig anizatns uld lose their tax-exempt stat if they refe to hire a gay person or uld lose grants or accredatn if they choose not to open up adoptns to gay upl, for example. ”“Its protectns for relig liberty, while not prehensive, are important, pecially the ntext which [RFMA] aris, ” Layck and the other experts Layck letter also noted that both gay rights and relig eedom advot have failed to advance their when they have refed to engage law scholars noted that Lee’s effort 2015 to pass a more expansive relig liberty bill, the First Amendment Defense Act, uld not get 60 vot the Senate spe the fact that Republins ntrolled both chambers of Congrs. After he me out The Tim, he was showered wh praise and affectn om nstuents, lleagu and opponents symbolism was powerful: A generatn before, Gibb’s party, led by Margaret Thatcher, had systematilly monized lbian and gay Brons and outlawed the teachg of the “acceptabily of homosexualy as a pretend fay relatnship” through the much-reviled Sectn 28 of the Lol Government Act.

Brish voters apparently no longer see sexual orientatn or genr inty as relevant polilly: The 155 lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr ndidat who stood last month’s general electn did no worse than their straight lleagu. In fact, the fifty rac where there were petive LGBT ndidat, Tory LGBT ndidat performed nsirably better; 72 percent had larger vote share creas than the natnal trend, and on average their gas were three tim the Tory ’s g out brgs the Tory lbian, gay and bisexual uc the Brish Hoe of Commons to thirteen, equal size to the Labour Party LGB group. Right-of-center policians who intify as LGB are members of parliaments Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Lhuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovakia, Swen, and Swzerland, and there is likely to be a gay Likud MP the Israeli Knset soon.

In Sndavia, this trend has gone on for while; fact, openly gay Per-Kristian Foss was briefly the Conservative Party’s actg Prime Mister of Norway the graph shows, the most rapid growth LGBT reprentatn has been among polil are Amerin Republins so different om their nservative unterparts on LGBT issu?

WHY FOUR JTIC WERE AGAST THE SUPREME COURT'S HUGE GAY-MARRIAGE DECISN

Among both Republins and Democrats, younger voters support gay rights larger numbers than any other across the board, Pew recently found that nearly 60 percent of Republins did not thk their party was dog a good job of reprentg them on the issue of marriage is the Republin Party so out of step wh voters?

In books, amic journals, magaz, blog posts, speech, nferenc, and mp clubs, they are steadily buildg a se that there is a place the tradnal evangelil church for sexually active gay people mted, monogamo relatnships. They argue that the Bible, read properly, don’t nmn such relatnships at all—and neher should mted mastream of evangelil thkg remas firmly planted on the issue for now, and tends to see “pro-gay” anythg as an outsi force to be fought off.

So, the evangelil world, arguments about anythg important tend to beg wh the Gospel wrers don’t rerd J sayg anythg about homosexualy, but elsewhere the Bible, pendg how you unt, there are five to seven passag that addrs homosexualy directly, and all of them seem to e down agast . Brownson is a theologian and profsor of New Ttament at Wtern Theologil Semary Michigan, and his book—“Bible, Genr, Sexualy: Reamg the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relatnships, ” published Febary by Eerdmans, a Christian publishg hoe—amounts to perhaps the most extensive, accsible, and direct evangelil reckong wh the Bible’s passag on particular, he vot no fewer than four chapters to Romans 1, unpackg Pl’s fns of lt, pury, shame, and natural law tail, and emerg wh the claim that ntemporary believers shouldn’t unrstand “shamels acts wh men” as meang the same thg we’d now mean by gay sex.

PRO & CON QUOT: SHOULD GAY MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?

Eerdmans Publishg pots out that the ancient world, as other theologians have also observed, gay sex was viewed by Christians and Jews not as the exprsn of an nate orientatn, but as a symptom of ltful excs—what Brownson lls “a kd of endls search for exotic forms of stimulatn. Matthew V, a young evangelil who has emerged as a leadg advote for affirmg gay relatnships wh the church, lls “the first scholarly work that gets the issue right terms of historil analysis and is also approachg om the right cultural space.