Letter Sent to the Baltimore Sun:
George Deller's letter, "Why stop at gay marriage?" (August 13), was a mocking response to the heartfelt commentary ("We're just like you") by a local lesbian couple involved in a long-term committed relationship who were married in Canada and have hopes that Maryland will soon recognize their marriage. In his bewildering diatribe, Mr. Deller intends to use his letter-writing gifts and implore his state representative to not only end discrimination against gay couples but to extend that goal to incestuous adults as well.
The vapid logic of equating same-sex marriage to incest is breathtaking in its absurdity. I'm not sure from which source Mr. Deller obtains his news, but I am not aware of any broad movement afoot where mothers are anxious to marry their sons and brothers are frustrated because the law will not permit marriage to their sisters.
In making this bizarre analogy, Mr. Deller demeans the relationships of tens of thousands of gay and lesbian couples in Maryland and at the same time he perpetuates the nonsense that the legalization or recognition of same-sex marriages will lead to incest and other unrelated consequences. For him to draw such a connection, Mr. Deller must believe there has been an outbreak of incest in the several states plus several countries that have seen the light and have legalized same-sex marriage. Of course, that is not been the case.
If that is the best argument Mr. Deller and others can offer to prevent marriage equality, we should be seeing same-sex couples who had been married out-of-state celebrating soon, which hopefully will open the door for complete marriage equality here.
Mr. Deller would be better served in seeking a reduction of divorces, adultery, poverty, drug and alcohol abuse--the real threats to marriage--not some imaginary threat based on fear and bigotry.
Steve Charing
1 comment:
Steve,
Your comentary makes and assumption: same sex marriage good, incest bad. In my oppinion, advocates for same sex marriage, such as yourself, should explain the logic behind this assumption. From the perspective of opponents of same sex marriage, myself included, same sex and incestuous marriage are both undesireable. This is a statement of value which could be explored to a greater extent. Built into your oppinion, however, is an implied statement of value within which same sex marriage should not be associated with incestuous marriage because the latter is somehow undesireable. Why should we not discrimitate against two men who aspire to have their sexual relationship sanctified by marriage but then continue to discriminate against brothers and sisters, etc., who may desire to have their sexual relationships similarily recognized as legitemate? Upon what basis to we make such discrimination? From my perspective same sex marriage advocates are not seeking to remove all restrictions from the definition of marriage, thereby allowing all consenting adults to define for themselves what constitutes a loving and committed relationship worthy of legal recognition. Rather they are advocating for a convenient and arbitrary redifinition which would let them join the marriage club. If you ask for tolerance, for what consenting adults choose to do in the bedroom, most people will oblige. What homosexuals forget, however, is that the main stream still regards their behavior as degenerate in the same way they also regard incest as degenerate. You may see a difference but within a democracy there is a process that determines which oppinions and values will prevail. In this case I find the debate, the struggle to prevail, extremely interesting.
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