SHOULD MOST GAYS AND LESBIANS MARRY?: Matt Taylor

Andrew Sullivan, David Brooks, and other self-described "pro-SSM conservatives" have suggested that gays and lesbians are morally obliged to marry their same-sex partners. Take this bit from David Brooks, for example: "It's going to be up to conservatives to make the important, moral case for marriage, including gay marriage. Not making it means drifting further into the culture of contingency, which, when it comes to intimate and sacred relations, is an abomination."

Sure, most people are better off in committed, monogamous relationships, but to "insist" on such relationships in any tangible way would do more harm than good. David Brooks seems stuck in the recurring fantasy of social conservatives -- that the root of all evil is people having sex in whatever way they don't approve of at the time. They would replace today's "culture of contingency", with a "culture of conformity", where they, the self-appointed guardians of morality, decide what is expected of the rest of us. Haven't we learned anything from centuries of war, persecution, genocide, etc.? The most horrific evil is always committed in the name of righteusness, against those outcasts who are labeled "abominations" ... we would do well to stop this labeling altogether and learn the value of tolerance.

So in reply to the question "should gays and lesbians get married?" ... I say, let each couple answer the question themselves. We should all be too busy keeping our own relationships healthy to go nosing into someone else's.
posted by Eve at 7:08 PM | link

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