I'm not going to post too many more times on this topic because I like to keep my posts and my interests fluid in life. Since the religious arguments against gay or same gender marriage are probably more widely known and easier to understand, I found a video on Youtube that explains some of the secular arguments against gay marriage, made by a legal scholar speaking at UC Berkeley. As usual, if my esteemed readers are too lazy to watch the video, I summarize the content briefly in my comments below.
The gentleman in this video presents three basic secular arguments in this video against gay marriage.
1. Gay marriage is radical: Heterosexual marriage has been the norm for our society since its inception. Moreover, nearly every society in the world, and in the world's history, has embraced some form of heterosexual marriage while very few have ever embraced homosexual marriage. The gentleman also points out that the right to marriage, especially gay marriage is not present under the "positivist" view of the law (in other words, the right is never specifically mentioned as existing in the constitution). Thus, in order to transform the institution of traditional marriage, gay marriage advocates have the "burden of proof" in explaining why society should accept gay marriage.
I agree with this point wholeheartedly.
2. Gay marriage is risky: Because gay marriage is such a radical departure from past ideals and institutions present in our society, the consequences of instituting this new right will likely be difficult to predict. I covered some of the ripple effects that could potentially occur from gay marriage in both a serious and humorous way in a couple of my previous posts. The speaker also states that a transition away from marriage may have been partially responsible for the fall of Roman society.
While I agree with the basic premise of his arguments (and have posted both serious and humorous supporting material), I would like to see more support for his idea about a change away from traditional marriage being a partial cause of the decline and fall of Roman civilization. While the idea is interesting, to my knowledge it isn't a commonly known idea or fact and needs to be substantiated heavily before I can accept it.
3. Gay marriage is a departure from the norm: The speaker argues in this video that gay relationship comprise only a small minority of all relationships that exist in society. The speaker then argues that the three options for this situation are: prohibition, tolerance, and acceptance. The speaker then argues against the latter because, although some gay people are good people, the characteristics of the group -- including high rates of infidelity and STD infection rates -- are undesirable.
I agree with this point as well. Unfortunately, if gay marriage is ultimately legalized, I can see a very plausible future where traditional marriage is no longer the norm in our society, as I have mentioned in an earlier post.
Happy Family:
Color me confused!
ReplyDeleteI thought you would be for gay marriage based on some of your comments on the topics I write about on my blog. :)
As far as gay marriage, those are some interesting points.
Top 17 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong
ReplyDelete17. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.
16. Gay culture is a new fad created by the liberal media to undermine long-standing traditions. We know this is true because gay sex did not exist in ancient Greece and Rome.
15. There are plenty of straight families looking to adopt, and every unwanted child already has a loving family. This is why foster care does not exist.
14. Conservatives know best how to create strong families. That is why it is not true that Texas and Mississippi have the highest teen birthrates, and Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire have the lowest. This is a myth spread by the liberal media.
13. Marriage is a religious institution, defined by churches. This is why atheists do not marry. Christians also never get a divorce.
12. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why our society has no single parents.
11. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
10. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
9. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
8. Gay marriage should be decided by the people and their elected representatives, not the courts. The framers checked the courts, which represent mainstream public opinion, with legislatures created to protect the rights of minorities from the tyranny of the majority. Interference by courts in this matter is inappropriate, just as it has been every time the courts have tried to hold back legislatures pushing for civil rights.
7. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britney Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because "separate but equal" institutions are a good way to satisfy the demands of uppity minority groups.
5. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
4. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
3. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
2. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
1. METEORS and VOLCANOES.
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Thank god Anonymous put some sense in here.
ReplyDeleteNone of the excuses in the video even come close to being valid reasons to prevent gay civil marriages. In fact it proves how silly the reasons to prevent it are.
If this is the best you've got I would expect gay marriage everywhere in the western world within 15 years.
Could someone please give me a decent reason why we shouldn't have gay marriage? Please, I've been searching for one and they never hold up to scrutiny. Bring them on I say.
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