Monday, April 04, 2005
Interesting article on gay marriage
Here's a link to a rather thoughtful article on gay marriage written by libertarian Jane Galt. Her perspective is similar to mine in that she is ambivalent about this issue. Surprising as it may be to some readers, I am not necessarily opposed to gay marriage, and have in fact leaned more to favoring it. Lately I have grown a little more hostile to the pro-gay marriage side mainly due to that its inability to consistently put forward a satisfactory argument demonstrating why the laws should be changed. There's been a lot of heated rhetoric on both sides, granted, but as someone who is basically in the middle on the issue, the anti-gay marriage side has done more to convince me. Of course I will readily admit a natural disposition to favor the conservative argument, and thus that may color my view. But other than a handful of individuals, none of those arguing for gay-marriage have done much to sway me.
Anyway, getting back to this article, Galt questions the wisdom of one of the more common arguments put forward by gay marriage supporters.
Anyway, getting back to this article, Galt questions the wisdom of one of the more common arguments put forward by gay marriage supporters.
This should not be taken as an endorsement of the idea that gay marriage will weaken the current institution. I can tell a plausible story where it does; I can tell a plausible story where it doesn't. I have no idea which one is true. That is why I have no opinion on gay marriage, and am not planning to develop one. Marriage is a big institution; too big for me to feel I have a successful handle on it.She goes on to describe a few instances in the past where the argument was made and was soon refuted through real world events. The post is really too long for me to blithely copy and paste certain segments, so read it all if you want to understand her arguments. I personally think this is well-reasoned argument that does not necessarily condemn the entire gay marrige movement, but only a certain part of its argument.
However, I am bothered by this specific argument, which I have heard over and over from the people I know who favor gay marriage laws. I mean, literally over and over; when they get into arguments, they just repeat it, again and again. "I will get married even if marriage is expanded to include gay people; I cannot imagine anyone up and deciding not to get married because gay people are getting married; therefore, the whole idea is ridiculous and bigoted."
They may well be right. Nonetheless, libertarians should know better. The limits of your imagination are not the limits of reality. Every government programme that libertarians have argued against has been defended at its inception with exactly this argument.
# posted by Paul Zummo : 11:44 AM
