Why?
Conservatives worldwide, even in Britain, Boris Johnson screams about marriage. In South Africa, the conservative party wails about same sex marriage.
Why is it such a do or die issue amongst conservatives worldwide?
It’s more a religious thing than a political one. Apparently “Love thy neighbor” doesn’t include people that fuck wrong.
There are people who are scared of gay people. Conservatives play to these fears in order to win the votes of these people.
Yeah, exactly this. It brings people to the polls. GWB did that for his second run – ran on a anti-gay marriage platform and then when he won, he immediately tried to…privatize social security.
Conservatives like to think about gay sex a LOT. Like, a lot a lot.
Why don’t you ask some conservatives?
It isn’t a big Comservative issue in Canada. Although not everyone agrees, there is a consensus among many Conservatives that there are few votes in opposing what has become a broad consensus. Abortion is largely a similar issue here.
Conservatism tends to attract religious groups due to its theoretical focus on families and institutions. These have different views on marriage. To me, conservatism stressing individual choices and smaller government has more appeal. Some conservatives believe in legislating their version of morality. In fairness, identity politics or politically correct speech could conceivably be viewed by some as doing the same thing.
I’m convinced that a lot of conservatives are self loathing closeted gays. It’s why they say it’s a choice, because every morning they wake up and struggle not to be gay.
Not sure which is more cynical, but I kind of figured it was the opposite. Like, imagine a guy who’s 100% straight, bang, done, no struggle at all; and imagine he grows up hearing about how homosexuality is a sin, and sees the occasional sinner get scorned; and every so often he sees someone (a) side with gays and (b) get lumped in with those sinners, and get scorned likewise.
So it’s basically no work at all for him to get praised as a fine upstanding type who ain’t one of them there homersekshells; he hears that they make a bad choice, and, well, gosh, he’s not making that bad choice, is he? They’re getting excoriated for giving in to a temptation that he genuinely has no interest in! If he goes along with this, he’s, like, commendable by default!
He effectively gets to keep hearing that he’s better than [shudder] them [/shudder] so long as, y’know, they keep doing stuff he doesn’t really give a crap about!
What could be easier?
I don’t know, the list of conservatives getting outed is long. When I hear some right winger go on about gays, I assume he’s a closet case; straight people just don’t spend that much time thinking about gay sex.
Conservatives seem to have accepted same-sex marriage to a much greater extent than abortion. They defeated in a primary a Republican congressman for just presiding over a gay marriage (of two of his volunteers) but they don’t seem to be looking for it to be overturned in the courts.
My wife and I are both consertives, and we have no problem with gay marriage.
It’s exactly this simple. At some point people will learn that just about everything a politician does that runs counter to common sense is for one reason…appealing to idiot voters.
Hang on, it’s the conservatives who are obsessed?
Just to be clear, are you identifying as a conservative?
Mules are illegal! And you must immediately divest yourself of clothing made of mixed fibers.
The same book has rules against same-sex marriage. I am curious why priests don’t tell mule farmers they’re going to hell, but they’re opposed to same-sex marriage. Honestly, I think it’s an excuse. Homophobia is pretty common among non-religious people too, but a homophobe being backed up by religion has a platform to spew hatred from.
He asked everyone, including conservatives. Is there a reason you, a presumed conservative, chose not to answer the question?
In the U.S., at least, it’s not a conservative issue, per se; it’s an issue for evangelical and fundamentalist Christians, who have become a particularly powerful wing of American conservatism over the past few decades.
I think this is wrong, it minimizes the problem. It is absolutely a “conservative” issue, whatever that means any more, in that it permeates the conversation on the right. This thinking isn’t something you can pin on just the bible thumpers. This is the kind of shit you’ll hear from run of the mill folks for no other reason than to reject anything the has a whim of social justice/political correctness. You’ll hear this from the NASCAR dads who couldn’t give a crap about church, but damn it they hate those liberals and their silly ideas. You’ll hear this from your big city finance bros who think any criticism of their toxic masculinity is “totally gay”. You’ll hear it from damn near everyone over 65 whether they go to church or not simply because they didn’t grow up with it. You’ll even hear it from Black and Latino men who are bombarded with macho culture.
It’s basically a proxy war. If you hate anything about liberal ideology, going after gay marriage and non-gendered bathrooms is a good way to own the libs.
@Omniscient: I don’t disagree with you that the issue permeates the conversation on the right, and that non-Evangelicals/non-fundamentalists are opposed to SSM. But, it’s been the conservative Christians who have led that fight (and generally the fight against gay rights), specifically because they find it to be sinful/immortal/against Biblical teachings. I suspect that, if the Evangelicals and fundamentalists hadn’t picked that issue (as well as abortion) as one of their primary issues, it wouldn’t be nearly as big of a feature of American conservatism as it is now.
Can’t speak for non-religious conservatives, but generally, for religious conservatives, any sin that is sexual in nature carries several times the weight of a sin that isn’t sexual. And homosexuality has that particular ick factor that adds to it.