Editorial Opinion - Toronto Digital Queeries-April - May, 2003
The Flimsy Case Against Gay Marriage
A specter is haunting conservatives: gay marriage. A Canadian Parliamentary committee holding hearings on sanctioning homosexual unions, and that prospect has induced something approaching apoplexy on the right. Some opponents regard this as one of the defining political issues of the day. Most on the committee want provinces to refuse to recognize such marriages--a departure from the custom that a marriage transacted in one province is accepted by all.
But why is there such resistance? This is not a zero-sum game. If homosexuals win the right to wed, the victory doesn't come at the expense of heterosexuals, who will retain all the pleasures, prerogatives and duties that come with matrimony.
Much of the opposition stems from religious objections. Rev. Ken Campbell insists "It is patently illegal and I would never have given it that much attention except for the concern that by default they were suggesting legitimacy," says the leader of the Civilized Majority group.
It may come as a revelation to Campbell that Canadian law and the 10 Commandments are two different things. We call ourselves a free society partly because we permit all sorts of things that "go against the Holy Scriptures"--blasphemy, fornication, making graven images, Sabbath-breaking, coveting your neighbor's maidservant and more.
The supposed moral offense that upsets conservatives is sexual relations between gays--which is already permitted nearly everywhere. If Canadians can tolerate gay sex, why not gay marriage?Conservatives, of course, do not willingly tolerate gay sex. But some of their thinkers have tried to come up with reasons to oppose gay marriage that are somewhat more persuasive than invoking Leviticus. The effort only demonstrates the emptiness of their cause. What they are engaged in is not reasoning but rationalization.
The primary objection from the Canada Family Action Coalition who are asking this Committee to recommend to Parliament that it once again affirm the current definition of marriage and use every means necessary to defend this definition, including the Constitutional use of the Charter's Section 33 Notwithstanding law.
But not everyone who gets married has children, and not everyone who has children gets married. We allow unions between people who don't want children and people who can't have children.
Marriage, conservatives argue, provides a vital framework for raising children. But gay couples also raise children--either children one of them has produced or children they have adopted. There is no law to stop a lesbian mother from bringing up her own son in a household that includes her female partner.The Inter-Faith Coalition ably argued how same-sex marriage would contradict the views of the major world religions (most marriages in Canada are conducted in a religious ceremony).But allowing gay marriage would advance the same interest by discouraging promiscuity and encouraging commitment--the opposite of what current policy does. If it's good for society when straight couples settle down in permanent, legally sanctioned relationships, why is it bad when gay couples do likewise?
REAL Women of Canada chooses to affirm, encourage and support, wherever possible, ways of maintaining permanency and commitment in marriage. Our view is that the family, which is now undergoing serious strain, is the most important unit in Canadian society. We believe that the fragmentation of the Canadian family is on of the major causes of disorder in society today. Here we have passed into outright hallucination.
Why do some think legalizing gay marriage would lead to man-boy unions, any more than allowing heterosexual marriage leads to man-girl unions? Children may not marry for a simple reason that is irrelevant to gay marriage: They can't give true consent.
As for incestuous pairings, they would doubtless remain illegal because they undermine a taboo that is crucial to the protection of children and because they carry health risks for potential offspring.
Polygamy? If two women are happy to marry the same man and live together in a family, subject to the same strictures as two-partner marriages, there is no obvious reason to stop them. But such arrangements would be rare. There are lots of unmarried gay couples in Canada but very few unmarried men cohabiting with several women.
These arguments serve mainly to obscure the issue, not illuminate it. Conservatives say they abhor gay marriage because they value marriage. The truth is they abhor gay marriage because they abhor gays.
Gay editorial Archives Toronto Whorlpool Magazine 2001
Editorial - Eminem's Fag Jag, April 5-21, 2001
Editorial - Heterosexual Family Pride Day, May 26-June 25, 2001
Editorial - Is Gay Cloning Next? December 1, 2001
Editorial - Online Gay Shoppers January 1, 2002
Editorial - Jerry Fawell takes a step forward February 1, 2002Gay editorial Archives - Toronto Digital Queeries 2002 -
Editorial - Is Gay Pride Day over?
Editorial - Straights in Toronto Gay Bars
Editorial - End of the Rainbow
Editorial - Public Sex
Editorial - Profiting from loneliness
Editorial - Integrity in Toronto gay publications
Editorial - Conformity of the urban homosexual lifestyle
Editorial - Primetimers
Gay editorial Archives - Toronto Digital Queeries 2003 -
Editorial - You know your a Torontonian when..
Editorial - Toronto lgbt community silent on war with Iraq.
Editorial - Whatever happened to Queer Activism in Toronto?
Editorial - The flimsy Case against gay marriage
Editorial - Pride week Toronto 2003
Editorial - Time to pull the plug
Editorial - Toronto has two gay villages!
Editorial - The Ridiculousness of Recruiting
Gay editorial Archives - Toronto Digital Queeries 2004-
Editorial - Homeless gay youth in Toronto
Editorial - Appearance is everything
Editorial - Gay Marriage - The Debate
Editorial - Who cares if gays marry?
Editorial - Why Toronto's gay village is dying
Editorial - Please be yourself- as long as who are your suits me
Editorial - Freedom to chose gay marriage or not?
Editorial - Exploring the Dyke [or Queeriosity]
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