I have my problems with the idea of gay marriage. On a psychological level, I am not convinced that this essentially heterosexual institution really matches the kinds of bond which men make with men and women with women. It's a bit like drag: the clothes don't match the body. On a societal level, I am very hesitant to fiddle yet again with a fundamental institution which is already under severe stress.
And I am also convinced that if gay marriage becomes mainstream, there is no reason why Muslims or Mormons cannot create polygamous marriages which will demand public acceptance. And at that point, you have to ask, what does "married" mean anymore. One more fragmentation of an already worryingly Balkanized culture.
Some people say there is no connection between same sex marriage and polygamy, that it's just a scare tactic. Charles Krauthammer puts the issue with his customary clarity:
After all, if traditional marriage is defined as the union of (1) two people of (2) opposite gender, and if, as advocates of gay marriage insist, the gender requirement is nothing but prejudice, exclusion and an arbitrary denial of one's autonomous choices in love, then the first requirement -- the number restriction (two and only two) -- is a similarly arbitrary, discriminatory and indefensible denial of individual choice.Historical incidents of marriage-like same-sex unions are spotty and unclear. But polygamy is widespread and well-attested. Once the gender of the spouses is declared irrelevant, what grounds can there be to limit the number to two?
Civil unions for people who are legally unable to marry, that strikes me as a good thing. But altering marriage, no.
1 comment:
"Historical incidents of marriage-like same-sex unions are spotty and unclear. But polygamy is widespread and well-attested."
Very true. Which is why it has always seemed to me that redefining marriage to include m/m and f/f is a much more radical maneuver than redefining it to include m/f/f/f/f. The latter would be mostly a revival of the past, while the former is a novelty.
While this issue is being discussed nowadays, there is also a contrary movement by social conservatives to add a legal option of "covenant marriage" in their state laws. I'm not an expert on the details of this, but the idea is to make a legal form that better fits the traditional idea than contemporary legal marriage does -- divorce should be more difficult, especially when there are young children.
Do you know anything about this matter or have any thoughts about it?
--Nathan
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