A Republican's Take on Same-Sex Marriage

Most Republicans are Indifferent at Worst Regarding the Issue of Same-Sex Marriage

November 17, 2009

Re: Is it worse for a Republican to have been caught naked on camera or to support gay marriage?

@daxi @cmcgill @trudster

The headline of the article appearing at Mixx read, "Is it worse for a Republican to have been caught naked on camera or to support gay marriage?"

Somebody had to put things into proper perspective given the wording used in the title and the nature of the article. This time, I decided to pick up the slack.

I've been a Republican since I was registered to vote. I've never had any opposition to gay marriage, and no one in the republican party has ever so much as questioned my position on the issue.

I've had the honor and privilege of getting to rub shoulders and spend time with some relatively high-profile figures in the GOP both at the state and national level. I am friends with the man who will in all likelihood be the next U.S. President. Nobody has ever shown me anything less than utmost respect for my views and opinions, and I have never once been ridiculed for my position on that or any other issue on which I break from the party's majority stance.

My initial comment in this thread was indeed partially intended to come across as humorous, however there was a more important point present. The technique is known as "illustrating absurdity by being absurd".

The point I was trying to make is that in my now 10+ years as a registered Republican, I have never seen, heard, read or witnessed anything that would give even the slightest indication that Republicans who support (or are indifferent to) gay marriage are subjected to inter-party scrutiny and ridicule, and/or that the topic is something of taboo to begin with.

The entire piece was written based upon a false premise, at least judging by my own experiences, and exposing that fallacy was the deeper point I was attempting to convey in my initial comment.

The fact is that the vast majority of Republicans with whom I've discussed the topic are either indifferent regarding gay marriage or support gay marriage rights by default in that they do not hold any opposition to modifications to the law or constitution that would garauntee gays equal rights as the constitution already does. Unfortunately, for some odd reason the courts have taken an increasingly narrow view of "pursuit of happiness" and the gay demographic doesn't constitute a large enough voting block to have any real political power.

I am in total agreement with the author when she says, 'If Republicans truly believe in keeping government out of our lives, that should include not permitting the government to dictate who one can marry.'

Furthermore, science has definitively proven that there is a genetic predisposition to homosexuality and that the ancient notion that it is a "choice" has been conclusively debunked. "All men are created equal." The word created obviously implies the presence of a creator, whom according to our nation's founding documents render present-day prohibition on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. If homosexuality is genetic, there should be no more debate on the matter. It has been proven that DNA plays a major component, yet for some pointless reason the debate rolls on.

As far as religious opposition to same-sex marriage goes, as a practicing Cristian, I cannot help but notice that nowhere in any of the proposed legislative and legal options to reverse the status quo regarding the issue is any type of provision requiring churches and religious organizations to recognize such marriages as legitimate. No one is trying to legislate that Baptist ministers will have to perform the ceremonies and recognize them as consistent with their accepted definition of marriage.

In other words, the government is the only meaningful entity that would recognize these marriages, and no one is asking for anyone else to. There will be no MiniTrue (the 'Ministry of Truth' from Orwell's 1984 was the governmental division responsible for policing thought and prosecuting thought-crimes). No one is calling for a law that forces everyone to approve. Each individual is responsible for his or her own personal decisions including whether or not to accept same-sex unions as legitimate. That right will not be taken away from the public if gays are endowed with the legal right to marry.

I'm sure you all probably figured that out, but I wanted to have this present on-record just in case anyone reading this failed to draw that connection.

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kevin on November 18, 2009
voting "bloc" not block