The Case Against Same-Sex “Marriage”
by JACOB W. WOOD
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on April 28 about whether there is a “constitutional right” to same-sex “marriage.” For the first time in history, our nation faces a dizzying prospect—that its laws, its courts, and the coercive power of the state that upholds them, could be turned against supporters of traditional marriage by judicial fiat.
This is not the first time that traditional marriage has been attacked at the Supreme Court level. But as the New York Times reported last week, it is the first time that top lawyers and top law firms have refused to file any briefs in support of it.
The New York Times suggests that one of the reasons why Big Law will not defend marriage is that some firms think that there are no good arguments against same-sex “marriage.” I wholeheartedly disagree. Although same-sex “marriage” masquerades as marriage, it cannot do the single most important thing that marriage does: create the stable nexus of relationships that serve as the building block of society.
We can see how same-sex “marriage” differs from marriage if we consider the most popular argument in favor of same-sex “marriage”: denying marriage to same-sex couples is like the denial of service to patrons at a restaurant on the basis of race. This is how the argument is expressed in the New York Times. It’s a brilliant rhetorical move because it quickly demonizes opponents of same-sex “marriage” by lumping them in with Klansmen. But it’s also a logically flawed move: it pretends that we are denying a group of people equal access to an institution, when in fact the members of that group have always been free to enter that institution, yet since they have no real interest in doing so, are now asking to create a new institution in its place.
So let’s break the race argument down. In its basic form, it has five steps:
Does it work? That depends on whether all the premises in the argument are true. Let’s take a look at the first premise: “What is natural is good.” Is that true? Well, it depends on what you mean by “natural.”
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on April 28 about whether there is a “constitutional right” to same-sex “marriage.” For the first time in history, our nation faces a dizzying prospect—that its laws, its courts, and the coercive power of the state that upholds them, could be turned against supporters of traditional marriage by judicial fiat.
This is not the first time that traditional marriage has been attacked at the Supreme Court level. But as the New York Times reported last week, it is the first time that top lawyers and top law firms have refused to file any briefs in support of it.
The New York Times suggests that one of the reasons why Big Law will not defend marriage is that some firms think that there are no good arguments against same-sex “marriage.” I wholeheartedly disagree. Although same-sex “marriage” masquerades as marriage, it cannot do the single most important thing that marriage does: create the stable nexus of relationships that serve as the building block of society.
We can see how same-sex “marriage” differs from marriage if we consider the most popular argument in favor of same-sex “marriage”: denying marriage to same-sex couples is like the denial of service to patrons at a restaurant on the basis of race. This is how the argument is expressed in the New York Times. It’s a brilliant rhetorical move because it quickly demonizes opponents of same-sex “marriage” by lumping them in with Klansmen. But it’s also a logically flawed move: it pretends that we are denying a group of people equal access to an institution, when in fact the members of that group have always been free to enter that institution, yet since they have no real interest in doing so, are now asking to create a new institution in its place.
So let’s break the race argument down. In its basic form, it has five steps:
- What we are born with is natural
- We are born with race and a sexual orientation
- What is natural is good
- Race and sexual orientation are good
- No one should be prevented from marrying based on what is good
Does it work? That depends on whether all the premises in the argument are true. Let’s take a look at the first premise: “What is natural is good.” Is that true? Well, it depends on what you mean by “natural.”
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