And when interracial marriage was illegal, everyone had the same right to marry a person of the same race, right?
But then those awful activist judges violated state rights by saying that such interracial marriage bans were unconstitutional due to something called discrimination.
Modern societies, for whatever reason, now regard discrimination as a bad thing. People oddly think think that there shouldn’t be any discrimination based off race or gender. That pesky equality thing and all those dumb rules are really inconvenient.
But seriously, partially innate sexual orientation doesn’t even need to be added as a protected class. When a man can marry Sally but a woman can’t marry Sally based off gender alone as the one determinant factor between the two scenarios, then that is gender discrimination in a nutshell. No way around that.
The only way to “STOP gay marriage now!” (as stated in the thread’s title) would be to:
- Get rid of all legal recognition of marriage, so that no one will have civil marriage rights, thus technically abiding by the standard of equality (and this would be the small government/libertarian approach).
OR
- Require all married couples to produce children as a condition of their marriage, thus making the civil institution fundamentally unavailable to same-sex couples.
Failure to achieve either of these things will only ensure same-sex marriage recognition throughout the most developed nations of the modern world. It’s only a matter time.
Just take a look at the statistics in the United States.
54% of Americans support marriage equality.
59% of American Catholics support marriage equality.
58% of American women support marriage equality.
50% of American men support marriage equality.
55% of Generation X support marriage equality.
68% of Millennials support marriage equality.
And now that same-sex marriage has become essentially commonplace, the next generation, when eventually polled, will probably have their support around 75%. Such trends cannot be meaningfully reversed.
Trying to defy the tides to social progress is futile. Those efforts are better spent elsewhere, toward something productive that might actually improve society and strengthen the family.
But by all mean, speak out against same-sex marriage in favor of archaic discrimination practices. It doesn’t really matter at this point. In five short years, marriage bans will be inevitably struck down throughout more and more countries, including the entire United States. At such a point, the opinions of the opposition will become permanently irrelevant and inconsequential.
And I’m not going to judge such opinions or the people who hold them. If some people think that discrimination should be enshrined the law of the land, then those people should still be treated with respect, civility, and common decency even if their views differ from the public’s view and national values. I feel, however, it is important for these people know that they are in a rapidly shrinking minority, and the laws will soon no longer reflect their beliefs on this matter.
This is important to acknowledge, since it would be a shame if these people wasted a moment of their lives fighting a losing battle, under the delusion that they could feasibly achieve victory. But they have the freedom and the right to continue in such a pointless pursuit if they so choose. They must be allowed to do what they think is right, and I certainly respect their conviction. But, for those who choose to stay in the fight against equality, please don’t get your hopes up. You’ll only end up being disappointed.
