A Thoughtful Conservative on Gay Marriage
Dean Mundy, the Thoughtful Conservative, has written an interesting piece on the movement to amend the Wisconsin constitution to define marriage as one man and one woman. I have long struggled with my own views on the subject. Like Mundy, I am a Christian. Where do values end and compassion begin? Marriage brings into question many issues such as custody in case of incapacitation or visitation in the hospital. Do supporters of the amendment really want to say that the homosexual partner of a seriously ill person can be denied visitation because the parents have never accepted the relationship?
posted by Doc at 12:59 PM
3 Comments:
"Do supporters of the amendment really want to say that the homosexual partner of a seriously ill person can be denied visitation because the parents have never accepted the relationship?"
I'm no expert on this subject, but it seems to me that we could grant the sort of rights you're talking about without adopting gay marriage. Even if we wanted to avoid civil unions, we could simply amend the laws to permit a hospital patient to specify (either in advance or at the last minute, whichever is convenient) who will get to visit them. Then long-term gay couples can have all (or some selected subset) of the substantive rights you're concerned about, without the societal stamp of approval that the anti-gay marriage folks are concerned about, and as a side benefit we'd have strengthened individual control over legal relationships for everybody.
Just thinking out loud here.
If the State of Wisconsin wants to deny a basic human right to two percent of its population, then the state needs to forward an argument, based on a greater social good, for its actions. I have not heard one sensible reason to deny gays the right to marry. "Oh yuck, are you kidding?" is not an argument.
One of my reasons I have problems on this question is that I do not see the right to marry as a "basic human right." I can see a basic right to companionship of one's own choosing, within limits (by that I mean that right does not extend to things like adults finding that companionship with children). But the right to marry is something else. Marriage brings with it special rights and responsibilities granted by society, and I certainly think the people have the right to decide who may or may not get those.
Because marriage is a privilege rather than a basic right, I have never accepted the bigotry/discrimination argument in favor of gay marriage.
On the other hand, I tend to agree with the demand for a solid argument. My old posting on the subject basically said the same thing, that most arguments against gay marriage come down to, they are gay! But I think it goes both ways. The supporters need to make their case as well, and let the people decide.
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