February 24, 2004

He also supports a constitutional amendment which states that people who disagree with him are going to Hell

In his statement in which he announces his support for a constitutional amendment discriminating against homosexuals, President Bush called marriage between a man and a woman "the most fundamental institution of civilization." And here I thought not killing people was the most fundamental institution of civilization.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has an argument for why gay marriage is wrong that doesn't hinge on a religious argument. Because, you know...if you went into court and said, "God told me to chop those people up and put them in my freezer," that's not going to get you acquitted, and saying "God doesn't want gay people to get married" shouldn't carry any more weight when it comes to making law. Hey, people! It's a secular democracy! Love it or leave it!

Posted by Francis at 02:44 PM
Comments

Amendments to the Constitution are rarely, if ever, used to limit rights. On the contrary, most amendments affirm rights (free speech, religion, due process, even bearing arms). Prohibition didn't work too well, as I seem to remember from history class.

Posted by: D at February 24, 2004 03:16 PM

Steven Colbert on the Daily Show had a fairly good argument, namely that he and his wife had only gotten married as a way to taunt their gay friends, flaunting a right that he had and the gay people didn't. Give gays the right to marry, and you shake the very foundations of otherwise solid marriages such as that one.

I was going to quote Marie Parente's argument from the recent Massachusetts constitutional convention: "Mother Nature left her blueprint behind and she left it in DNA, a man and a woman. I didn't create that combination, Mother Nature did." But then I realized that I wasn't sure exactly how that was supposed to bear on gay marriage anyway, and I think her speech was generally ridiculed, and she also said, with reference to the mural in the State House, "It says the Lord is our defense and the Holy One in Israel is our king. We are religious." So never mind.

(For the record: "not killing people" isn't really an institution, per se.)

Posted by: Lance at February 25, 2004 12:35 AM