More on gay marriage

Further to my post on gay marriage and Buddhism, I’m utterly baffled by the views of those who believe that allowing homosexual people to marry one another will destroy the institution of marriage.

Here’s a quote from a letter by John F. St. Cyr in today’s Boston Globe, in response to an article about a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which is currently legal in the state of Massachusetts.

Perhaps the most specious argument by supporters of gay marriage, echoed by your editorial, is that legalization of gay marriage by judicial fiat has not resulted in the collapse of traditional marriage. Any reasonable person understands that an attack on a long-established value does not result in its immediate collapse. It is future generations that will feel the effects of the dilution of the true meaning of marriage.

I’m married. How does two people who love each other getting married damage my marriage in any way? How does forcing people to have sex outside of marriage defend marriage? How is encouraging an entire class of people to participate an institution designed to encourage monogamy, responsibility, and commitment damage an “attack” on marriage? I’m truly baffled.

And what is the “true meaning” of marriage? Is it the union of two people who are of the same race, as it was in many states until as recently as the 1960s? Is it the complete ownership of a woman and all her property by a man, as it was until not too long ago? Is it the political union of two families, as it often still is in many parts of the world? Is it the union of two people so that they can have children? — in which case why don’t we ban infertile couples from marrying? Is it a sacred union in the eyes of God, in which case we should ban all secular marriage and non-Christian marriages?

Surely the “true meaning” of marriage is that two adults have committed to spend the rest of their lives with each other because of their love. That’s all. Any other consideration is simply prejudice.

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