A college student staying with us (from another country) has to write a paper presenting both sides of an issue. Since gay marriage has been in the news so much lately, she chose that topic. And she has to “interview” (can be via email or whatever) someone on both sides.
Well, we can present our “pro” opinions. But we don’t have any friends who’ve verbally said “no gay marriage not never not nohow”. Either they’re in agreement with us, or there’s a tacit understanding that it’s a sensitive subject and avoided to keep the friendship intact.
So… any links to reasoned arguments against gay marriage? By that I mean, something that avoids the whole Phelps/God Hates Fags, religious opposition because homosexuality is Teh Evil, approach. Basically, anything that makes a case against it - either as not needed, or absolutely should be forbidden, or whatever.
And, if anyone might be willing to exchange emails with our student on this topic, feel free to PM me with contact info - for obvious reasons, I don’t want to post her email (or mine) in the thread.
If she googles it there’s about a hundred different arguments against gay marriage. I’m a college student too and I feel this is doing her homework for her. You can help her google and show her how but she should have to find the arguments herself, IMO.
She chose the topic; she should be prepared to do the work!
I know we’ve had threads here, on topics like “What are the arguments against gay marriage?” The best example I could find is this thread. I don’t know if that helps or not.
I think the OP is looking for a volunteer w/ a personal argument against SS marriage to offer to exchange calls or emails with the student. Sound like this needs to be an interview, not a web-crawl.
Does “government recognition of marriage shouldn’t exist” count as an argument against gay marriage? I’m pretty staunch in that belief, and while I’m also of the opinion that gay marriage should be recognized as long as any marriage is, it’d be trivial to argue the opposite.
Failing that, I could probably conjure up something based on questionable studies of effects of gender roles on child development that’d be good enough for (socially conservative) government work. An email conversation along these lines would also be a good excuse to dust off my largely-mothballed-since-college-debate devil’s advocate skills. Sounds like fun…shoot me a PM if you’d like.
Read Outrage by Peter Sprigg. It’s my policy never to argue one side of an issue without reading something from the other side, and that book is a doozy.
And total crap, IMHO. The author states that most child molesters are gay. And how did he come to that conclusion? A survey taken of men in prison for molesting children showed that 90% of them self-identified as bisexual or gay.
No, seriously. If she has to actually speak with somebody from each side, and doesn’t actually know anybody on one side, she needs to cut her losses and pick a topic where she knows someone on each side.
Okay, if I had to come up with a rational reason to oppose gay marriage the best one I could think of would be the means used to implement it. In many cases, gay marriage has been legalized by executive or judicial action. Some people feel that an issue as big as this should be enacted by either legislative action or popular referendum - something that reflects the will of the people rather than just a handful of individuals in office.
That said, I feel this is a weak and non-persuasive argument and I think gay marriage should be legalized. So I can’t offer myself as the “other side” on this issue.
My advice would be for her to contact some members of the clergy. A lot of opposition to gay marriage comes from religious institutions. Contact some clergymen and ask them for their views. Ask those who are opposed to gay marriage to explain their reasons. She should tell them she’s looking for both religious and secular reasons.
Is she looking for secular arguments that could be used in court, or would religious arguments do? If the latter, she can just wander on down to the local Catholic Church. If the former, this is the wrong place. Roland Orzabal is not alone in being more against the marriage than against the gay. The only other argument anyone has used against it that I can recall is around “redefining” marriage.
Maybe a moderately religious site would have someone who makes reasoned arguments?
As for secular arguments, the ones presented to the Supreme Court and the California courts about Prop. 8 are the best you are going to find, feeble as they are.
Good thread. Looking back on it now, it almost seems the SSM proponents were being rude by not cordially accepting without question all the unspoken and unproven premises being advanced by the SSM opponents.
“Heterosexual marriage is special.”
“Why?”
“It just is!”
“How so?”
“Because it’s special!”
“In what way?”
I would advise her to choose another topic, rather than the same topic 80% of her class will choose. How about Israel vs. Palestine, or how to deal with Iran or North Korea?
Anyone propose this yet? No god involved, just culture:
“Marriage isn’t as fashionable for heterosexual couples as it once was. Legalize it for gays and being married will eventually become A Gay Thing, like tea dancing or Broadway musicals.”