I have a proposition for you… never mind
The gay marriage debate in California and beyond
In a 136-page decision, Federal Judge Vaughn Walker has overturned California’s Proposition 8, which provided that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid.” A (temporary) triumph for supporters of gay marriage, the case will likely be appealed and eventually find its way to the Supreme Court.
The gay marriage debate is but one battle in a larger “culture war” between two diametrically opposed worldviews, with differing beliefs about human flourishing and the societal consequences of social liberation.
Many of those who support gay marriage believe that marriage is a contract between consenting adults in which the state ought not to discriminate unfairly and irrationally. Others are children of the sexual revolution, who favor sexual autonomy and a departure from traditional sexual mores, largely on grounds that a more frank and open sexuality is more conducive to human flourishing. In general, though, supporters of gay marriage consider it an equal right, and tend to believe its social implications will be benign.
Gay marriage is opposed fiercely by social conservatives who lament the societal consequences of the sexual revolution. They cite high divorce rates, increasing out-of-wedlock births, sexual licentiousness, and other phenomena as threats to personal and societal well-being. This paternalistic orientation associates gay marriage with the encouragement of abnormal sexuality.
For abnormal sexuality to be protected by law would be to tacitly encourage lifestyles, practices, and attitudes that are contrary to what has traditionally led to human fulfillment and well-being. For social conservatives, sexual autonomy is not liberation from injurious repression and conformity but license to hedonism, dissipation and self-destruction.
Opposition to gay marriage has been losing ground in recent years. In part, this is a result of the social progressivism of a new generation of young voters. But it also suggests a growing tension within the social conservative mind between the value of tradition and that of societal flourishing. In fact, some prominent conservatives have come out in support of gay marriage on the grounds that society in general and gays in particular stand to benefit from commitment, stability and other healthy tendencies associated with marriage. Though retaining their concern for family cohesion, they have ceased to consider gay marriage a threat to it.
-Charles
Image from Flickr user Fritz Liess used under a Creative Commons Attribution License
Related posts:
- Gay marriage, continued . . .
- Healthcare, Rights, and Human Rights
- Human rights and gay marriage
- Conservatism as organic change
- Moral reorientation?
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