The Insanity of Not Supporting Same-Sex Marriage
this entry brought to you by stars, "ageless beauty"
Of course I support gay marriage. In my mind, it's not even an issue. But I want to be honest about it to prove a point. On a personal level, something about gay marriage makes me uncomfortable. And I don't think it's entirely just my own prejudices, although I'm not so pig-headed as to think that might not have anything to do with it. There are a couple troubling issues when it comes to gay marriage that I definitely think a smart person, regardless of how passionately they support gay marriage, should consider.
For one thing, domestic abuse amongst gay couples-- an issue that gay rights activists very rarely bring up-- is statistically much larger than in opposite-sex couples; startlingly so amongst lesbians. Gay couples also have an extremely high rate of infidelity, and when combined with gay men's much higher rate of contracting STDs, this in particular becomes very troubling.
I also worry about children growing up in this environment. When children are brought up, gays often say that their children will not grow up gay, because they themselves were raised by straight parents, but did not turn out straight. This reasoning doesn't really hold water, unfortunately. Let's say the population is 10% gay. That means that 90% of all straight parents have straight kids. Meaning, more than likely, 90% of gay parents will have gay kids. However, I'm not worried about gay couples having gay kids, so long as the child is happy, and really, that's what any parent ultimately wants. But I do worry about that child in social circumstances. Kids will be kids and they will always be assholes. But it's one thing when a child is teased about something that's not true, and it's another thing entirely when a child is made fun of for things that are true. I think that in 10-20 y ears, we're going to see a lot of young adults with very specific social issues that will come up from being raised in a gay household.
Of course, none of the issues I've brought up should neccesarily be impediments on gay marriage. They are my own personal discomforts, and to be blunt, my own discomforts don't really matter because I'm not gay and I was not brought up in a gay household. All the same arguments were said 40 years ago during the civil rights movement. Whites and blacks shouldn't marry because blacks are much more likely to be involved in crime (this is true, but misleading, and ignorant). White and blacks shouldn't have kids because their kids won't be socially accepted (hell, my own grandmother taught me this one). And none of these supposed issues that people were so serious about at the time ultimately mattered as time passed. People will love who they feel like and you can't stop them from fulfilling their lives how they see fit. What's so frustrating about America is that there is-- and always has been-- this gigantic group of people that, despite living in the supposed melting pot of tolerance, cannot distinguish between personal beliefs and the rights of another human being. A federal law protecting gay marriage just makes sense regardless of personal beliefs or religious nonsense or any glorified image of the sanctity of marriage that never actually exisited.
Here's an example. Let's say two women live together and consider each other wives, although they never officially are married because the law won't let them. And let's say they decide to have a baby my natural means. Whether or not you have a problem with this is completely irrelevent-- people will do this. People will have children. Now let's say when the child becomes 10 years old, the biological mother falls ill and dies. Now, because they were never legally married, the remaining mother suddenly has no rights as a parent, despite that she is the only living parent the child has ever known. The court then has the legal right to put the child in the home of a close relative, or worse, a foster home.
This scenario makes absolutely no sense, but it happens. If there is a parent that is perfectly willing and able to raise a child they love and that loves them, then their child should never be taken away from them. But because of a bunch of selfish idiots who don't think of the ramifications of their beliefs stopped them from being able to get a slip of paper saying yes, the two women were married, and yes, the nonbiological mother would like to adopt the child. This sort of thing happens all the time in hetero marriage; people get married and the nonbiological parent adopts the child from a previous relationship. This isn't just symbolic. This is done so that if something happens to the biological parent, the remaining parent still maintains their rights as parents. It is common sense to keep a child with the only parent they've ever known in case something happens, but it's a common sense that is not afforded to homosexuals.
Yes, on a personal level, I do in fact have a problem with homosexuals gettind married. I don't like to admit it because I don't want to sound like I'm close-minded, but I honestly do have a problem with it. But frankly, I also have a problem with stupid people getting married and having kids, I have a problem with people who don't love one another getting married, and I have a problem when parents raise children that they do not want or love. I think these families create much worse mental instabilities in children than a happy homosexual couple would, and I think they are more of a blight on the "sanctity of marriage" than people who want to get married that are also of the same sex. When people mention that the US Constitution wasn't written with the idea of same-sex couples getting married in mind, they're right. But it also wasn't written with blacks or women have the right to vote or to be elected for office in mind. Luckily, the founders of our country had the foresight of allowing the consistution to be amended. However, suggesting that the Constitution should be amended to outlaw gay marriage is a farce, and quite an offensive one. The US. Constitution has only been amended to take away someone's right's once, during the Prohibition Act, and that was repealed in less than two decades, proving how well Americans take to their rights being taken away.
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with love from CRS @ 7:01 PM
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Of course I support gay marriage. In my mind, it's not even an issue. But I want to be honest about it to prove a point. On a personal level, something about gay marriage makes me uncomfortable. And I don't think it's entirely just my own prejudices, although I'm not so pig-headed as to think that might not have anything to do with it. There are a couple troubling issues when it comes to gay marriage that I definitely think a smart person, regardless of how passionately they support gay marriage, should consider.
For one thing, domestic abuse amongst gay couples-- an issue that gay rights activists very rarely bring up-- is statistically much larger than in opposite-sex couples; startlingly so amongst lesbians. Gay couples also have an extremely high rate of infidelity, and when combined with gay men's much higher rate of contracting STDs, this in particular becomes very troubling.
I also worry about children growing up in this environment. When children are brought up, gays often say that their children will not grow up gay, because they themselves were raised by straight parents, but did not turn out straight. This reasoning doesn't really hold water, unfortunately. Let's say the population is 10% gay. That means that 90% of all straight parents have straight kids. Meaning, more than likely, 90% of gay parents will have gay kids. However, I'm not worried about gay couples having gay kids, so long as the child is happy, and really, that's what any parent ultimately wants. But I do worry about that child in social circumstances. Kids will be kids and they will always be assholes. But it's one thing when a child is teased about something that's not true, and it's another thing entirely when a child is made fun of for things that are true. I think that in 10-20 y ears, we're going to see a lot of young adults with very specific social issues that will come up from being raised in a gay household.
Of course, none of the issues I've brought up should neccesarily be impediments on gay marriage. They are my own personal discomforts, and to be blunt, my own discomforts don't really matter because I'm not gay and I was not brought up in a gay household. All the same arguments were said 40 years ago during the civil rights movement. Whites and blacks shouldn't marry because blacks are much more likely to be involved in crime (this is true, but misleading, and ignorant). White and blacks shouldn't have kids because their kids won't be socially accepted (hell, my own grandmother taught me this one). And none of these supposed issues that people were so serious about at the time ultimately mattered as time passed. People will love who they feel like and you can't stop them from fulfilling their lives how they see fit. What's so frustrating about America is that there is-- and always has been-- this gigantic group of people that, despite living in the supposed melting pot of tolerance, cannot distinguish between personal beliefs and the rights of another human being. A federal law protecting gay marriage just makes sense regardless of personal beliefs or religious nonsense or any glorified image of the sanctity of marriage that never actually exisited.
Here's an example. Let's say two women live together and consider each other wives, although they never officially are married because the law won't let them. And let's say they decide to have a baby my natural means. Whether or not you have a problem with this is completely irrelevent-- people will do this. People will have children. Now let's say when the child becomes 10 years old, the biological mother falls ill and dies. Now, because they were never legally married, the remaining mother suddenly has no rights as a parent, despite that she is the only living parent the child has ever known. The court then has the legal right to put the child in the home of a close relative, or worse, a foster home.
This scenario makes absolutely no sense, but it happens. If there is a parent that is perfectly willing and able to raise a child they love and that loves them, then their child should never be taken away from them. But because of a bunch of selfish idiots who don't think of the ramifications of their beliefs stopped them from being able to get a slip of paper saying yes, the two women were married, and yes, the nonbiological mother would like to adopt the child. This sort of thing happens all the time in hetero marriage; people get married and the nonbiological parent adopts the child from a previous relationship. This isn't just symbolic. This is done so that if something happens to the biological parent, the remaining parent still maintains their rights as parents. It is common sense to keep a child with the only parent they've ever known in case something happens, but it's a common sense that is not afforded to homosexuals.
Yes, on a personal level, I do in fact have a problem with homosexuals gettind married. I don't like to admit it because I don't want to sound like I'm close-minded, but I honestly do have a problem with it. But frankly, I also have a problem with stupid people getting married and having kids, I have a problem with people who don't love one another getting married, and I have a problem when parents raise children that they do not want or love. I think these families create much worse mental instabilities in children than a happy homosexual couple would, and I think they are more of a blight on the "sanctity of marriage" than people who want to get married that are also of the same sex. When people mention that the US Constitution wasn't written with the idea of same-sex couples getting married in mind, they're right. But it also wasn't written with blacks or women have the right to vote or to be elected for office in mind. Luckily, the founders of our country had the foresight of allowing the consistution to be amended. However, suggesting that the Constitution should be amended to outlaw gay marriage is a farce, and quite an offensive one. The US. Constitution has only been amended to take away someone's right's once, during the Prohibition Act, and that was repealed in less than two decades, proving how well Americans take to their rights being taken away.
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