Friday, July 07, 2006

New York and Gay Marriage

New York's Supreme Court recently upheld the state's marriage law that says marriage is between men and women. In so doing, they have upheld the civilized world's long standing position that God instituted in Genesis 1 when he made male and female and brought them together.

Not unexpectedly, this has many people up in arms. Those who praised the Massachusett's court ruling of 2004 are condemning the NY decision. What do many of these all have in common? They are gay marriage supporters who have never been able to win in the legislature and so they have taken their battle to the courts. They are the same people who praise the courts when they rule for them, and condemn the courts when they rule against them. While that is not unique to them, it shows that they are not driven by principle of government, but by principle of position. When they get what they want, the givers are enlightened, forward thinking progressives. When the same people do not give them what they want, those same people are backwards thinking regressives who would still own slaves if they could get away with it.

New York Representative Jerrold Nadler says,
This is a sad day for families, a sad day for justice, and a sad day in the struggle for equal rights for all Americans. The promise that, in this nation, all people are created equal, and entitled to equal rights, compels us to end discrimination against same-sex couples. Today, the Court of Appeals has failed to take that stand.
Why doesn't Mr. Nadler solve the problem by getting the congress to adopt his position? Simple: He can't. Because the vast majority of Americans do not agree with him, and their representative in Congress do not agree with him. At every turn, Americans have voted overwhelming against gay marrigae.

Consider Mr. Nadler's statement. He argues that all people are created equal and are entitled to equal rights. The truth is that all people do have equal rights. Gay people are not prevented from getting married. They are allowed to go down, apply for a marriage license, and get married just like everyone else in this country. And just like everyone else, they must obey all relevant laws. There is no discrimination against same sex couples here, not unless discrimination has changed meaning and I did not get the memo.

Conservatives have too long allowed the discussion to be framed as "gay marriage." What is that? Nothing. It is like talking about a round square. Gay marriage does not exist by definition. Marriage is the union of a man and woman. It has always been that way. What homosexual activists are looking for is a redefinition of marriage.

Conservatives need to emphasize loudly and clearly that homosexuals can get married. They simply have to do it like everyone else. Find a partner of the opposite sex and marry them. That's what we had to do. If you can't, then stay single, just like everyone else who did not (or could not, as the case may be) find a partner of the opposite to marry them.

If that has legal and financial consequences for you, then accept it. Be a hero, not a whiner. That is the price of making choices. When I got married, it had legal and financial consequences for me. As I often remind my wife, it is a decision that I will pay for for the rest of my life. (And it is worth every penny it costs me.)

Too often we live in a world where people want to make decisions without accepting the consequences of those decision. If you choose to live with a partner of the same sex, you choose to accept all the consequencese of that decision. You may argue that you were created that way, that you have a built in attraction to the same sex. Fine. That may or may not be true. Science has not proven either way, and attraction is not easily defensible from Scripture. Many people have evil attractions and many people have good attractions. Your attraction is not at issue.

What is at issue is your choices. You may not have chosen to be attracted to the same sex, but you do choose who you take your clothes off with. Nobody forces that on you. And you do choose who you love. Nobody forces that on you.

So if being homosexual is more important than getting married, then be homosexual But realize that you must accept the consequences that are built in to that choice. Do not pretend like you are greatly persecuted. Do not pretend like you have no choice. You do. So live like it.

If you want to win the legal battle, then do it at the ballot box. Do not shame our constitution and the laws of this land by circumventing either. As the NY court said, there is a remedy; it is in the legislature. Win your battles there, not at the bench.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amen, Larry. Well said.
Skip

Mister Larry said...

Well said!

I live in Florida, and a petition has been organized by citizens to define marriage as being between only one man and one woman, and to exclude other definitions or recognition of any other. If the petition has enough signatures, which it almost does, then the vote will given to the voting public in the 2008 general election, and if it passes, it will become an amendment to the Florida Constitution. The petition can be found at www.marriage4florida.org .

Needless to say, there is organized opposition to the proposed amendment and the petition organization by homosexual activists. Florida law requires that petition organizers must file with the state the names of those who signed their petition. The homosexual activist group against the marriage amendment petition is organized by a gay church in Jacksonville, and they have obtained the list from the Florida state supervisor of elections of those who signed the marriage amendment petition, and have published this list on their website. It's possible that their efforts are intended to intimidate those who wish to sign the petition. Here, too, the opposition to 'gay marriage' is very strong, and will eventually become the law of the land in the State of Florida if the voters approve the marriage amendment petition. If homosexual activists want to have things their way, they will need to do the same, either through legislature or petition. Of course, either way, they will lose.