Ladies and gentlemen: the Virtual President of the United States.
I don’t have any particular problem with two people of the same gender marrying each other. Granted, it never would’ve occurred to me that they’d want to, if they hadn’t brought it up. But… yeah, sure. Okay. Why not?
I think there are solid arguments for it, actually. The main one being: If your problem with homosexuality is promiscuity — and not just some sort of revulsion at homosexuality itself, which is too bad because it’s always been around and always will be — then why wouldn’t you want two people to make a binding, lifelong commitment to each other? If marriage is supposed to strengthen our society, what’s the problem with strengthening it all the more?
The problem is, nobody ever makes that argument. Or it’s very rare that they do. No, instead they stamp their feet and scream “Not fair!” and call their opponents bigots. It might make them feel better, but it’s not very convincing to anyone who isn’t already convinced. Demonization is always the easy way out, but it just makes the demonized ones plant their hooves.
That said, Virtual President Whittle is right. Marriage shouldn’t be any of the government’s business anyway. It’s a civil contract. It’s an agreement between two* people. The government just wants to meddle in it because that’s what big government does. With everything. All the time.
As the mighty Burge puts it:
Not sure why government is in the marriage-recognition business, but whatever.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 26, 2013
*For now…
P.S.
Just imagine the lefty cognitive dissonance that'll need to be reconciled when #NotAllMuslims start killing Americans over #gaymarriage.
— Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) June 26, 2013
P.P.S. More on this from Burge: Same Sex Marriage and Gilligan’s Island Game Theory.
If there’s anything that gives me pause about SSM, it’s the thuggish tactics of some of its most vocal proponents. It’s hard to take a “human rights activist” seriously while he’s beating someone over the head with a “NOH8” placard for holding the same position Barack Obama held until 5 minutes ago.
P.P.P.S. Commenter LadyLiberty1885 nails it, no pun intended:
The government got into the marriage business for one reason: to exact money from it.
The government then attached all kinds of benefits and legal contract issues to it for one reason: to exact money from it.