I should probably stay quiet on this. I'm somewhat caught in a paradox where I've been upset by people expressing sentiments I disagree with, but in speaking out am I not doing the exact same thing to them? That isn't really the point though I guess. I think I just need to get a few things off my chest. Besides, looking at the flat line graph of the view history for this blog, who's going to read it anyway? If you're a family member who is disturbed by my views, you have every right. Please just don't engage me in a debate about this. My overall hope in this is for people to have respect and understanding, even when they disagree.
Let's just get this out right up front. I support equal rights for same sex couples 100%. Another thing that should be clarified is that I don't consider myself part of an organized religion. I also don't consider any text to be divine or sacred. The "how" or "why" I came to hold these opinions isn't what this post is about, but I'm putting them here at the beginning because they certainly are relevant. The last thing I want the reader to realize about me is that I tend to be apolitical. I think the political process in our country is corrupt and full of nonsense. This is really only relevant in the context of pointing out that what I'm going to talk about, although it is a story from a political theater, is really just my opinion.
One of my biggest problems with the opposition to the SCOTUS same sex ruling is the "slippery slope" argument. By making gay marriage (a term I really dislike. It's just marriage,) legal, people say is going to lead to all sorts of wacky things. People are going to start pushing for marriage to anything and everything. Pets, multiple people, minors, even inanimate objects. I guess part of the problem is that people see homosexual love as being "wrong," and if the government steps in and says "oh that one thing some of you think is wrong really isn't," those same people start imagining all sorts of groups coming out of the woodwork to demand marriage rights. Didn't this same thing happen with interracial marriages?
Let's think for a minute about the numbers here. I'm not going to go google search how many gay people there are in the US that have been advocating for equal marriage rights. I think it's pretty safe to assume though that there are more people in this country who are actively seeking or support same sex marriage versus something like marriage to children, or dogs, or that bobby pin on your desk that you've decided you want to marry out of principle. I realize that our society champions the support of minorities, but let's try to not stretch the term "minority" too far.
Lots of folks get upset because this change, this landmark legislation, came about largely in part because of something called public opinion. These days when one viewpoint gets recognized, all of the other counter opinions suddenly feel slighted. It's like people think there's some "Newton's Law of Equality-dynamics" where every right granted has a corresponding equal and opposite revocation of rights. I'm not sure if anybody noticed, but heterosexual marriage is still just as legal as it was before. Additionally, if you think the legalization of same sex marriage is going to lead to a nationwide movement of people who are going to push for the legitimization of adult/minor relationships, I'm sorry but you're out of your mind. Again, let's just look at the history and numbers involved in the push for gay rights. If any of these other notions ever attain the momentum of the gay rights movement, that would represent a significant deviation from the current course of public opinion.
Legitimizing adult/minor love has a lot of logic against it. A good deal of law is established around the notion of being a legal adult. Being legally restricted as a minor is the result of socially agreed upon logic that there needs to be a line in the sand where people agree that a child can no longer be considered a child. Before that, legally, there are certain decisions the child can't be trusted to make on their own, including having a sexual/emotional/legal relationship with an adult. Comparing the different levels of inappropriateness here to the concepts of homosexuality takes a bit more imagination than I can fathom. Contrasting two topics on the basis that both are wrong (to you) and involve relationships is extremely simplistic.
Adults can't marry or engage children in relationships because it is universally considered exploitation. The child is being exposed to concepts it is incapable of processing. They lack context and maturity and can be manipulated by the adult. The deck is stacked wildly in the adult's favor. Which of these themes relates at all to an adult same sex relationship? What would make you think that a significant portion of the general public would be in support of adult/minor relationships, based on what we know about their psychological effects? This slope doesn't seem so slippery to me.
"Love is love," a popular slogan of the same sex marriage ruling, has come under fire by people with some pretty grand imaginations. Again, the "slippery slope" argument is used to point out that accepting that "love is love" exposes society to notions that anything is okay and that someday everything will have to be made legal if love is involved When you take "love is love" out of context, of course you can see all sorts of problems with literally embracing it for everything. I never really felt that taking things out of context was the best way of forming an argument, but that's just me.
This seems silly to mention at all, but do that many people really want to legally marry animals? I'm not in the loop about the perceived legal benefits of doing this, so I'm not really sure why. I'm not going to spend time hashing this out because I think the number of people who want to marry their dogs is so small that considering the eventual legalization of human/animal marriages as a result of the SCOTUS gay marriage legislation is pretty mental.
I'm pretty apathetic to the notion that legalizing same sex marriage could lead to existing polygamy laws being changed. I'm no legal scholar, so I don't know about the history behind why polygamy became illegal. If a person wants to have multiple spouses, I don't see a problem. All parties involved have to be of legal age and (of course) be willing. Those stipulations already apply to marriage. Polygamy eventually becoming legal seems unlikely. I need more education about the topic to know if there are issues involved that I'm not considering here.
I have a lot of family members that are devoutly religious. I respect that and always have. For that reason, I'm not going to dig too far into the religious side of the opposition to this ruling. I just want to reinforce the fact that we live in a secular nation. The ruling has nothing to do with religious marriage. Period. Those who are legally married are not obligated to legitimize their marriage by involving a church. Churches are not being asked to perform same sex marriages. If you are a gay couple who wants to get married in your church, the SCOTUS can't help you. Church rights are as intact as they always have been. The "family" isn't under fire. Same sex couples being able to adopt isn't going to destroy society. Heterosexual couples have provided us a long and rich history of showing that anybody can mess up a kid. It goes without saying that a child with same sex parents may experience challenges in life because of their parents. I dare say that these challenges will mostly be the result of small minded people external to the family.
I think the thing I have had the hardest time with about all of this is that it's just about equality. The legal benefits of marriage are pretty obvious. Imagine being in a relationship with somebody you love deeply and not being able to handle medical directives for them because you can't be a legal spouse. Whether or not you think homosexuality is natural, discriminating against those individuals is reprehensible and it's about time our society started recognizing the need for equal rights.
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