I just posted this on Facebook.
There are a lot of marriage equality postings on Facebook. Im in favor of freedom and the constitution. Equality of all things and results is not what the constitution guarantees. Im not a Constitutional lawyer. I do know that the Declaration of Independence is not part of the Constitution. I think it should be but weve never done that.
So, if we are not guaranteed equality of results in the Constitution, where do we look for it as a controlling rule of life? I dont. I dont expect to be able to play in the NBA. I dont even expect to be chosen as a judge based upon my gender.
So what does this have to do with the marriage equality movement? First of all, everyone has the right to marry right now. He or she can marry any person of the opposite sex if he or she is old enough. So we restrict that right in that in this county a 45 year old man cannot marry an 11 year old girl. In some countries that does happen. So the government has this role, to regulate marriage. At present, no one is agitating for the right for a person to marry two people at once. A decision was made over a century ago that this was not good for our culture.
Until the last few years, everyone assumed that only men married women and vice versa. Why the change?
Two people of the same sex can give sexual pleasure to each other. That is no longer a crime in this country. They can enter into contracts which require certain behavior in the event of a split. Even Kansas has held that these contracts are binding. They can name each other in wills. Most corporations allow domestic partners to be named as beneficiaries in health and life insurance and on pensions and 401[k]s. These provisions allow both same sex and opposite sex partners to care for the other.
I mentioned that the government had the right to regulate marriage as seen in the approach to child brides and multiple wifes (or husbands). What other role or power does our government have?
We go back to the Constitution at this point. Our government in its founding document gave away a lot of power. One of the huge chunks of power it gave away was in the first amendment. Ill start with freedom of speech. People are being shouted down if they have reservations about gay marriage. They are called bigots, homophobes, hate mongers. They are being fired, marginalized, and generally discriminated against. This is not the American way. In that same amendment, we are promised freedom of religion. My faith says that homosexual sex is morally disordered. Im not ready to throw out over 2000 years of Church dogma and tradition for the politically correct flavor of the month. I have this right, in the Constitution, to disagree and vocalize about it. My Church has the right to refuse to do same sex commitment ceremonies or marriages. But thats what is coming next because another role of government is to enforce. We are possibly one or two generations away from priests being imprisoned for refusing to marry two women. Do we want that society? So before we all start jumping up and down about how progressive and cool we are, think it through. What is to be gained and what lost by this exercise? Who is being helped and who is being harmed?
I keep hearing people tell me that, but Scarlett Johansson doesn't believe me when I assert my right to marry her.