Institutional Marriage is Threatened
A great number of people seem to be worried about the institution of
marriage these days for all the wrong reasons. Some prominent political and
religious leaders are scared that gay and lesbians are a threat to marriage
as a thriving institution. This kind of fear has been increasing since the
Supreme Court ruled that state’s anti-sodomy laws are unconstitutional, thus
taking away the stigma of criminality from homosexuality.
The religious right has been having what appears to be a bit of a
sore-loser tantrum. They claim that the court’s ruling will lead to any
number of horrible things, linking gays and lesbians to such things as
pedophilia and beastiality. These kinds of comments and fears only show a
deep-seated prejudice and bias that is about as far from reality as can one
can get. There are far more pedophiles who are heterosexual than homosexual.
True pedophiles are not concerned about the gender of the child they are
molesting, but their sickness extends to either gender, so long as it is a
child. A backlash of prejudice has raised its ugly head after the Supreme
Court’s brilliant decision.
The only way that gays and lesbians are a threat to marriage is to make
some rather absurd assumptions. First you have to assume that people choose
to be gay. No one chooses whom he or she is attracted to, it is a part of
out natural sense of self. The second absurdity that must be assumed for
gays and lesbians to be a threat to marriage is that if everyone is given an
equal choice, the vast majority of people would choose to be in a same-sex
relationship. Now, I’ll admit that for those of us who are gay and lesbian
our relationships are awesome, but I doubt that homosexuals will ever be
more than a small minority of any society, therefore no real threat at all.
I am concerned about some threats to marriage however. The idea that the
only way for a young person to be normal is for her or him to grow up and
have a heterosexual nuclear family is a threat to marriage. This is proven
by the huge number of divorces among heterosexuals who thought that marriage
would solve all their problems, Marriage only provides a smaller breeding
ground for one’s problems, but does nothing to solve them.
Marriage is also threatened by things like domestic violence; the
patriarchal power system in gender roles, the idea that the only reason for
marriage is to have children, and many other ridiculous concepts that have
become a part of our culture.
Sexual minorities are in no way tearing down the institution of marriage
in western society. The sexual majority is doing a great job of doing that
all by themselves. To blame the ills of marriage on gays and lesbians is
simply another attempt for society to ignore its real problems and find a
scapegoat they can use as a common enemy.
