The backlash to gay equality is now in full swing on the right. The Vatican declared in no uncertain terms the “evil” nature of loving gay relationships. Not only are gay relationships inferior to straight ones; they bear no relationship whatsoever to them. They are not even “remotely analogous.” Love is not something gay couples feel in the way that straight couples feel. And if a gay couple adopts, say, a foster child, then they are inflicting “violence” upon such a child. Violence. This from an institution that, we now know, condoned, covered up and practised the molestation of hundreds of children. I guess they’re speaking from personal experience. In Canada, “Roman Catholic Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary warned that Mr. Chrétien [the Canadian Prime Minister] could be doomed to burn in hell if he allows same-sex legislation to become legal.” And then I get a revealing email like the following:
A few years ago I attended a lesbian “marriage” ceremony in Memphis. One of the women involved was a childhood friend of my wife, and as a pretty libertarian conservative, I was all in favor of it. To my utter surprise, about halfway through the “ceremony” I was furious and I only grew angrier. It took a while to figure out why I was so upset, but what I finally decided was that if this charade of a real relationship was to be called “marriage” then what does that make my own marriage? Is all marriage to be reduced to this level? My marriage is the most important thing in my life; it honors a promise I made before God to love & cherish my wife; it’s a promise made completely separate from the issue of whether we have sex with each other. (We’ll still be married if either of us should suffer some injury.) How can you compare that to the fly-by-night sexual couplings of gay people who define themselves, to the subordination of all other traits, by their sexual preference? I encourage communities that are so inclined to constitute some sort of legal relationship that allows for property inheritance, rights to handle details at funerals & hospitals, etc., regardless of sex or relationship. I will never accept the gay agenda of cheapening the meaning of marriage so that those who have chosen to live outside the boundaries of normalcy can feel better about their choices by redefining normal.
There you have it. He provides no evidence why this lesbian relationship is somehow a “fly-by-night sexual coupling.” That’s just how he feels about it. A heterosexual quickie Vegas wedding would doubtless leave him feeling far less angry. What you have here, I think, is a simple defense of privilege. This is my piece of social status. If queers are in it, it’s no longer special. Why? The usual inchoate emotions. One reason minorities have always always needed courts to defend them against overwhelming majorities is that privilege has defenders. Remember the battle over inter-racial marriage? Back then, whites felt that their institution would be destroyed and cheapened by “mongrel” weddings. Much bigger majorities opposed inter-racial marriage in 1967, when it was finally protected, than now oppose same-sex marriage. But then those evil judicial activists imposed equal marriage rights on an unwilling populace.
The Dish 