Gay Marriage

I admit I'm mostly uninformed. Yet I still feel like I have some things to say about the topic of gay marriage that I don't hear stated very often.

First of all, I don't think it's okay to practice homosexual activity, and even if genetic influences are involved there is still choice in the activities a person participates in. But this isn't about whether or not laws should stop people from immoral behavior. After all, I think it's immoral to have extramarital sex, but that is pervasive and unpunished in our society. So it's important to point out that if marriage keeps its current meaning (i.e. no gay marriage) that does not preclude anyone from behaving how they wish.

The gay marriage argument seems to lump a bunch of issues into one. Supposedly this is about rights that are affected by marriage status. I don't know what all the rights are for families (even though I am married and have children). Two come to my mind. Tax breaks (for kids) and adoption. Let's assume there are many others. By redefining marriage to include homosexual relationships, we uniformly remove all discriminating between the two in all cases (I purposely used the word "discrimination" to bother those who think it's a bad word). I think each case and right should be handled individually. Not only does the gay marriage movement try to change a large clump of legal implications all at once, reaching as far as public education, without specifically addressing what the effects will be, but it also tries to remove the possibility of ever distinguishing between the types of "marriage" in the future.

For example, I'm told that gay couples can currently adopt children, at least in some states, even without gay marriage. This is an issue for many people, and certainly some adoption agencies would not like to be involved in this. However, if gay marriage is legal, this issue becomes void. Agencies that don't want to be involved in giving adoptions to gay couples will face law suits. This has already happened in states where gay marriage is legal. So that's one important issue that's carried in the basket of gay marriage.

It's hard to justify the governments current support of families (I'm not one that likes to look at empirical data involving social behavior and make a case out of it). This is a form of discrimination they we as a society have decided to embrace, thank goodness. Gay unions should be classified as a separate entity, with their own set of rights and privileges established. By legally lumping in these new types of marriage into the marriage category we are diluting our traditional support of families. It seems that the gay marriage proponents carefully avoid talking about two important observations. One---gay marriage brings with it much more than the ability to live together and love. Two---the same arguments about rights and discrimination that are used in favor of gay marriage could also be used to add a variety of other arrangements into the category of marriage or remove the legal status of marriage all together. If that were directly proposed, it would be swiftly defeated. When logic leads to inconsistency or undesired conclusions, you have to question the premise.

My mother went to graduate school for a degree in teaching while she was raising four children. If I remember correctly, we had free "family" passes to the swimming pool for a while. Then the university decided not to discriminate against unmarried couples, so the "family" benefits were extended to a larger group of people, such as "partners." In the end, we no longer could swim for free. Let me restate that: The family privileges were extended to everyone. How generous of them.

In honesty, I realize that my argument for a separate category (like "unions") could be turned against me. Why not say that marriages between people of different races should be in a separate category as well? There was a point in history when this might have gained approval. I don't have a good answer for that. They just seem like fundamentally different issues, rooted as deeply as biology itself.

On top of everything I've said, I don't want the government to dictate that my children must be taught that being gay is perfectly acceptable. It's not hard to see that this is going there and beyond. I can teach my children on my own to love and accept people regardless of their choices.