Kristof generally annoys me. He writes like David Brooks: syrupy sweet with little substance. His column today, however, is fantabulous. It's on that issue that will probably divide the country in a not-so-nice way in the coming weeks and months.
The bottom line is that same-sex love is a mystery far more subtle than just a matter of Biblical injunction — just as interracial love has turned out to be. A 1958 poll found that 96 percent of whites disapproved of marriages between blacks and whites (Deuteronomy 7:3 condemns interracial marriages). In 1959 a judge justified Virginia's ban on interracial marriage by declaring that "Almighty God . . . did not intend for the races to mix."
Someday, we will regard opposition to gay marriage as equally obtuse and old-fashioned.
No force is more divine than love, and if some people are encoded to love others of the same sex, how can that be unholy? To me, the blasphemy is not in those who want to share their lives with others of the same sex, but rather in anyone presumptuous enough to vilify that love.
Friggin' beautiful. Emphasis is mine.
I've seen tons of slippery slope arguments. I've seen that black conservatives are in outrage because some have argued that this is just like the civil rights movement. I've seen religious conservatives outraged as they're always outraged.* Yes, I'm well aware of the Mormon in Utah who's suing under the Massachusetts decision. I'm going to make a number of fundamental arguments on marriage and other issues the "non-straight" face that delininate my position on this. Then I'll leave it to debate, but I'm going to be up front and honest: I'm as stubborn as a mule and my position is not changing, ever. I'm like this with affirmative action as well. Don't worry, there are few things that bring out my stereotypical Irish stubborness that I get from my mom's side of the family. Anyway.
1. Allowing homosexuals to legally marry their partners will not cause society to crumble. Has Canada fallen apart? The Netherlands?
2. Allowing homosexuals to legally marry does not threaten straight marriages. If a man (or woman) divorces their opposite-sex spouse to marry someone of the same sex, they probably weren't straight to begin with.
3. Noone is forcing anyone to marry anyone. Marriage is a choice between two people who love each other.
4. Allowing homosexuals to legally marry could, quite possible, do something to stem the tide of divorce. 50% of marriages fail. All this fixation on gays marrying, and noone is paying any attention it seem to this fact. Think of it this way: if marriage, with the failure rate it has, were a car or aircraft, the company creating said car or aircraft would have been long out of buisness and its engineers long put away for negligence.
5. Morality is subjective. I've seen the "moral vs. immoral" argument about extending marriage rights to same-sex couples. Note the aside below, by the way, it relates.
6. Human dignity, privacy, and the right to marry the one someone loves (within reason and age-of-consent limits) is what I believe is a fundamental human right.
That's all I can come up with for the moment.
Fire away gang.
*ASIDE: I admit to being hostile toward fundamentalism of any sort due to the extended family I have and the drama they create. It's a large reason why I often shut down when hearing the literal Biblical arguments for anything, especially homosexuality. I'm working on this, but it will be a very long time before I hold any evangelicals or Fundamentalists in a favorable view. Plus...that whole thing with the Islamic fundamentalists has pushed that favorable view off for a very, very long time. And don't get uppity: I do know my Bible. I own two.
Update: Surfing around, I keep reading stuff that, quite frankly, reminds me of that horrible Kathleen Parker piece I parodied a bit ago. You know, the "gay people are everywhere and they entertain us normal folk but don't let them get what we have" argument. I'm not going to lie. This is an issue that I feel very strongly about. I equate it to finally having EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN having THE SAME RIGHTS. . . I believe that's one of the arguments for the Iraq war.
When I read stuff that "gay marriage is cultural vandalism" I smell the faint and unmistakeable stench of bigotry. All fueled by the book of Leviticus. Let's not forget that the book of Genesis supplied the Biblical belief that slavery was okay. Let's also not forget that the book of Deuteronomy supplied the Biblical belief that condemning interracial marrage was okay. We know now that both are evils.
It's getting under my skin and I don't fucking like it. I hate it. I fucking hate it. But I'm not going to let it get to me, because it's Advent and it's the Holidays and we're supposed to respect human dignity in this period.
I can live with affirmative action getting repealed. I could probably live with the end of abortion. (I don't see either happening though.) However, the addition of a federal amendment that excludes a class of people from legally (I'm not EVEN referring to the church thing!) marrying would probably be the thing that makes me head for more tolerant pastures, like Canada.
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