My first point is that there can be no comparison between the fight for racial equality and the movement supporting homosexual marriage. To begin with, race occupies a singular place in our country’s history and laws. Our country fought a bloody Civil War and passed three separate constitutional amendments to rid our society of the injustice that was slavery. The segregation laws that followed were ugly remnants of a culture of racial slavery, and they were immoral and unjust. They defied the American promise “that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Black Americans were enslaved, literally deprived of their liberty, often robbed of life, and denied the opportunity to pursue happiness. Segregation laws were a legal statement of inequality. No other law in American history spells indignity and injustice like they did, and no other law so explicitly rings false to our country’s founding principles.
For the second point: Applying the racism of segregation-era America to today’s “social battles” does not make for a compelling comparison. To state what should be obvious, not all racists oppose same-sex marriage, and not all who oppose same-sex marriage are racists. To say otherwise is disrespectful and frankly ludicrous. No reasonable person is advocating “segregation” between the opposite-sex-attracted population and the same-sex attracted population. I don’t need to go into detail on this point. It should be enough for readers to simply think of their own family, friends and acquaintances — some of whom, no doubt, are uncertain about or against homosexual marriage — and realize that pairing “racist” with “opposed to same-sex marriage” means labeling many reasonable people as outright bigots. That kind of accusation has heavy consequences and is dangerous to healthy discourse.
Marriage, as it stands and has stood for centuries, is not an institution that was driven into existence by bigotry or constructed to deny some right to homosexual partners. People who oppose same-sex marriage do so for a variety of reasons. There are many who oppose it for religious reasons, and others for reasons grounded in history, philosophy and our country’s Constitution. What traditional marriage supporters generally want is to uphold a centuries-old definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. It is a fixed definition. They see marriage as unique and unchanging, valuable because of (and contingent upon) its singular male-female union, and meaningless without it.
My third point refers to the idea that those who are concerned about religious liberty rights in and around homosexual marriage are covertly advancing some right-wing agenda. This is misleading, false and insulting. Religious liberty is a real, fundamental right, first in our constitutional amendments. It’s what allows a man to be a conscientious objector or a church to choose its own minister. In general, it’s what protects religious people who hold views that are out of political favor. Mr. Michaelson admits that intellectuals and politicans on both ends of the political spectrum support religious liberty. He simply thinks that religious liberty should be much more limited than it is or ever has been.
Read more at the Washington Times.
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