Gay Marriage

Louisiana is voting on a marriage amendment next month. I have made my decision regarding my vote on this issue:

I do not agree with the typical Christian response that it is “us vs. the gays”, and that allowing homosexuals to marry is promoting sin. I, honestly, think that the type of freedoms homosexuals are seeking are somewhat similar to the freedoms of conscience and religious expression that Evangelicals prize and fight for. If two adults want to sin in bed together, who am I to stop them? If an adult or two or five wants to force or manipulate a child into sin in bed, then it’s time for society to step in and lay the smack down. Consensual, adult sex is not an issue for a democracy to be playing around with, lightly.

However, I will be voting in favor of the marriage amendment—to protect marriage as it has been traditionally interpreted: one man and one woman. I will vote this way, because I believe it will be destructive to the fabric of our society to allow fully recognized homosexual marriage. Let me explain:

Marriage brings with it some economic benefits: shared insurance, minor tax breaks, and so on. If homosexual marriage is fully embraced by America, these benefits will eventually disappear. If I can marry a man, why can’t I marry two of them, or one of each? When I was in college, I worked for a company that gave benefits to “domestic partners”. I wondered why it would be impossible for me to sign my roommate up on such a plan. He most certainly was my “domestic partner”. We just chose to have a celibate partnership. (There are many heterosexual marriages that do the same, I’ve heard.)

Anyway, where does it all stop? When do I get to claim my cat as a dependent for insurance and tax purposes? Can I do it now, or do I have to have sexual relations with Mr. Potter first? I know this is crude, but I need to express the point. If sex becomes the basic level of legal relationships, our country is in some serious trouble.

Above, I said that the economic benefits of marriage will disappear if homosexual marriage is fully embraced. They will disappear because there will be no end to whom is married to whom, eventually. With no-fault divorces available for like $69 in the newspaper, marriage is a pretty shaky institution as it is. Throw this in the pot, and marriage will lose the supports society has built for it. Granted, those supports do not make happy and healthy marriages, but they are incentives to marry at times, and incentives to work through some difficulties. Without these supports, marriage will become less and less secure in America, and I am thoroughly convinced that weak families equal weak nation.

In summary: I am opposed to legalized gay marriage, because it may well help destroy America.