Skewed views on gay marriage

Heterophobes strike back
Posted November 15, 2008 5:45 a.m.

Recently an associate and I argued the issue of "gay marriage." She considers it a human rights issue, and decries the discrimination she and her friends see:

"Welcome to California. Where chickens have more rights than I do. ... That was one of the most common signs I saw yesterday at the Los Angeles Mormon temple. ... MTV News talked to protesters outside the temple and got to hear what they felt about the situation, and one thing became clear: The majority felt they were standing up for equal human rights more than anything else."— Protesters Bring Their Anger With Gay-Marriage Ban To The Mormon Church, by Elena Torres, MTV News, Friday, November 7, 2008

But there is no discrimination, only obfuscation.

Marriage not at issue

First, same-sex couples already can and do get married. This has been the case in every state in the union since the 1970s. The issue is not marriage, but the marriage license.

Same-sex couples can have wedding ceremonies and get married, but in most states they may not obtain a marriage license. The license imposes certain responsibilities and confers certain rights.

Second, there is no discrimination: Homosexuals have precisely the same rights that straight people do. They may obtain a license to marry a consenting person of the opposite sex. This is precisely the same right that everybody else has and that's what they want to change, but it's not discrimination.

Same rights, different wants

If gays, lesbians and transsexuals were prohibited from getting a license to marry a consenting member of the opposite sex, that would be discrimination. But under current law gays, lesbians and transsexuals can get a license to marry a consenting member of the opposite sex, so there is no discrimination.

The anti-miscegenation laws so often cited in support of "gay marriage" prohibited a person of one race from getting a license to marry a member of the opposite sex of another race.

To apply to the gay marriage issue, current law would have to deny a license to homosexuals wanting to marry a heterosexual member of the opposite sex. But no law in America does that.

Hence, the comparison is specious and proves only one thing: those who compare it to the anti-miscegenation laws want us to believe that homosexuality is comparable to race, which is ludicrous, and that there is no sex, only gender, which is contrary to biological fact.

Change is inevitable

I write this as a lukewarm opponent of gay marriage. In my opinion, it's inevitable. As 21st century pioneers move into the next new frontiers, building cities beneath the sea and above the planet, they will break free of existing laws and customs to create their own.

Moreover, gender roles will blur in some of those communities as nanotechnology and other technologies allow individuals to change their sex at the molecular level. Most of those experiments will fail but some will succeed. And as a non-Jehovah cultural conservative while I think we ought to resist experimenting with radical changes, I recognize that change always comes.

Humorless haters

This and most issues need less hyperbole and hate, and more honesty and humor. If some imbeciles want to destroy the very fabric of civil society, unearth the foundation of the universe and rewrite the code of creation, then the very least we can do is to listen respectfully before we burn them in effigy.

That was a joke.

Yes, I know heterophobes don't find it funny. Haters seldom find anything funny. But as one who has been the target of a lot of violence I claim the right to find humor in ironic hyperbole and jokes about effigy-burning.

It's legal and hurts nobody.