Yesterday a three judge panel of the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision upheld the ruling of US District Court judge Vaughn Walker that Proposition 8 (that reversed the policy allowing same sex marriage in California) was unconstitutional. This ruling will likely be appealed to either the full Court of Appeals or the US Supreme Court and until such time as they uphold the appeals court ruling or decline to hear it, the ban on gay marriage in California will continue.
One of the things that really puzzle me is the continuing opposition in some quarters to same sex marriage and contraception because they are going to lose and it is only a question of when. The tide is clearly moving in the direction of people deciding that if people are doing things that don’t harm anyone, then we should not interfere with their right to do so.
Same sex marriage is one such issue. Why would other people’s marriage concern you? You can see a nice map of the current state of same sex marriage in the US states here. The state of Washington seems to be on the way to allowing same sex marriage in the near future too.
The same argument holds true for contraception, except even more so. It is obviously a personal choice that does not harm anyone else. It has overwhelming popular support, with surveys showing that up to 98% of Catholics have used it at some point in their lives. A majority of Catholics even favor the Obama administration’s ruling that organizations like hospitals and schools run by religious organizations that employ and serve non-Catholics should provide contraception as part of their health insurance plans.
The only reason for opposing same sex marriage and contraception comes from religious beliefs and religious people. If they were not so religiously devoted, they might realize that this issue is a big loser for them that is going to really drag religion down. When religious institutions and religious people chain themselves to policies that have no rational basis and are being overwhelmingly rejected, they only increase their follower’s disengagement with religion.
We already allow gay ‘civil partnerships’ in the UK. Oddly, these civil partnerships are not at present available to heterosexual couples. The government is currently going through the process of legalising gay marriage allowing religious organisations to carry out gay weddings if they wish. The Church of England is currently opposed even though there are no moves at present to force them to participate. Of course I think that it is wrong of the CofE to oppose gay marriage, but they are probably justified, in their own minds because the next step will probably be to make them fall into line due to anti discrimination laws. That is if they don’t change sides when they realise that there is money to be made.
Believe it or not, there is a very (VERY!) small amount of non-religious opposition to same-sex marriage. It is such a small and aberrant fringe that it is of no particular consequence — we should not be under any illusions that it is anything but religion and religion alone that is able to hold back progress on that particular social issue at this point in time — but I find it fascinating because I cannot possibly comprehend it. The rare examples I’ve encountered, it ultimately seems to be a matter of tribal political identification, i.e. “I’m a conservative, and conservatives like me are against marriage equality, so therefore I am against marriage equality — even though there is absolutely no possible justification for holding that position in my worldview.”
Still weird. Although I think it’s reprehensible, I can at least UNDERSTAND how someone could follow the chain of logic that “God says teh gey is awful, therefore no marriage equality”. I see how A purportedly connects to B purportedly connects to C, even though I think A is stupid and the connections are weak anyhow. The rare atheist who opposes it — that’s just WEIRD.
Jamessweet, I think a lot also has to do with the “ick”-reaction. People who have grown up with a tradition of harshly enforced heteronormativity, being taught that same-sex sex, especially between men, is “icky”, are probably likely to oppose anything that would give “those people” any basic humanity. That is, I think, the extreme of the people who use gay as meaning something bad, you know, like “that’s so gay!”
And why not allow gay marriage? That would solve half their problems right there: gay couples don’t need contraceptives! 🙂
“sex, especially between men, is “icky””
Except that a sizeable percentage of herterosexual sex takes the same form. 😉
I don’t think it is how gay men are having sex, but rather *that* they are having sex.
Shortly before the 2008 election I visited the website of some gay Republicans and found myself reading comments by gay people who supported Prop 8. One guy kept repeating that CHILDREN can only come from a HETEROSEXUAL (biological) union. He seemed to think that was an argument against gay marriage.
It was sheer political tribalism, and rather through-the-looking-glassish.
I have known about three openly homosexual couples so far. All have (fortuitously) been decent human beings. I did not find the ick factor in their love and concern for each other and would not have felt any ick factor if it wasn’t for ‘how’ they have sex.
I should add that I no longer have this ick factor. And the fact that heterosexual couples also engage in the same type of sex has helped me overcome that problem.
I’m not about to reveal any personal proclivities however. 😉