Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Is the gay marriage push a demand that I accept homosexuality as legitimate?

Gay marriage advocates argue that this is an equal rights issue. But what is it that a married hetero couple can "do" that an unmarried gay couple cannot "do"? Under current law, gays can commit themselves to one another... they can live together... what can't they do that married people can do? Nothing, as far as I can tell.

So why is it so important for these gay (and lesbian) couples flocking to San Francisco to be able to hold up an "official" marriage certificate after their one-minute wedding? I surmise that it's about validation: gay and lesbian marriage is about their relationship being recognized precisely as a marriage.

But my question is this: why am I being forced to acknowledge gay relationship as marriage? That is, after all, what marriage is: a political (i.e. public, on behalf of the people) stamp of recognition.

Hence, my conclusion: in many ways (albeit not for all those involved), gay marriage is about forcing the body-politic to recognize homosexual unions as legitimate.

Update: Occasional commentor Madeline comments that civil marriage is a civil right, and as such, cannot be denied to some but not to others.

My question for her and others: what exactly does the right to marry mean? How do you prove that a man has a right to marry another man? It's clearly not self-evident, and hence it must be rationally demonstrable; so... can anyone use a rational argument to prove that a man has the right to marry another man? NB: don't beg the question -- don't assert that anyone has the right to marry anyone, because that's precisely the point I'd like to see demonstrated. All of our rights are rationally verifiable... I'd like to see the rational verification of the right to marry someone of the same sex.

4 comments:

chrislynk@gmail.com said...

Best responce ever.

http://atheism.about.com/od/gaymarriage/a/whymarriage.htm

Anonymous said...

Actually, not really. If you had done any research at all on why people are pushing to legalize same-sex marriage, you would know about the 1,138 federal rights given to married couples that aren't offered to couples in a civil union. Please, understand that I do not intend to offend you, but marriage is a legal right and a civil right, and it is a right I would rather not have to fight for, but unfortunately must.

SOyea said...

No one needs your acknowledgement, and what is so "illegitimate" about the union of two people of the same sex? If a couple decides to get married, they should do it because they love each other and because of the financial benefits offered by the federal gov't, not just because one is a man and one is a woman. You obviously haven't been married, or you would know.

Unknown said...

lol... this is a post I wrote 8 YEARS ago, folks.

If you're really interested, I'm happy to discuss this further, but if Anonymous and SOyea came across this 8 year old post via some new link elsewhere, I want to make sure that it's not just a hit and run...