IS MARRIAGE A RIGHT? David Benkof

Same-sex marriage is not about equality, it's about whether we should (without much society-wide reflection) change the definition of a key building block of our civilization. Marriage already has a firm definition--a union between a man and a woman--and talk of equality seems aimed at detracting from that fact.

Women, by definition, cannot be sperm donors and men of course cannot be surrogate mothers. Nobody can reasonably complain that those facts are "unfair" or "unequal."

Further--hear me out, now--gays and lesbians already have the equal right to marry members of the opposite sex, and many have done so. Both prominent gay Christian Rev. Mel White and Episcopalian Archbishope Gene Robinson married and parented before they came out as gay. Countless other men and women with same-sex desires never come out but instead marry and raise children.

The typical gay-activist response to such decisions is that "they weren't being honest with themselves" or "they're living a lie." I've never understood why, when the libido is at oods with the mind, the heart, and the conscience, it's the libido that's supposed to be "true" and the rest of us that's charlatan.

Everyone in the country, gay and straight, has the right to marry, as that term has been defined for centuries. The fact that a small but growing segment of society might want to say that an apple is also an orange doesn't stop them from being separate fruit.
posted by Eve at 6:08 PM | Link |

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