Arguments Against Gay Marriage Literally Stop Making Sense

[meegbear]

Yesterday, I was sent an e-mail from the Stand for Marriage Maine campaign, which I signed up for under a secondary e-mail account. The message suggests talking points that opponents of gay marriage might use when calling into local radio stations:



So, paraphrasing somewhat, the arguments that the Yes on 1 campaign seems to be making are as follows:

1. The new law won't make gay marriage equal to straight marriage. Instead, it will create a new kind of marriage in which gay people and straight people are equal.
2. Although we may not have proven any connection between gay marriage and public education, our opponents haven't disproven the connection, and it's their fault that the subject came up.
3. If gay marriage is upheld, then marriage will exist solely to make people happy.

These arguments run from the literally incoherent (#1) to the sublimely unpersuasive (#3), with #2 somewhere in between. Yet, they are, apparently, the best arguments that the Yes on 1 folks can muster -- the ones they're using to close out their campaign.

The fact is that the overwhelming majority of people who dislike gay marriage do so for one of two reasons: either their religion has a taboo against homosexuality, or they find the practice gross.

But "Adam and Eve, Not Adam and Steve" does not make for a good tagline in a "serious" political discussion. And in Maine, for whatever reason (perhaps because it is one of the least religious states in the country), the Yes on 1 campaign has chosen to deemphasize the religious angle. Meanwhile, the primary "substantive" argument that they've made -- that the same-sex marriage law might alter the public schools curriculum -- has been discredited. This is what they have left to work with.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/10/arguments-agains...

[WeekendWarrior]

1. When did they START making sense? nt

[redqueen]

3. Same thing I was wondering... when did they ever? (nt)

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. I believe this is known as the Chewbacca Defense.

[Toasterlad]

9. Exactly. If Chewbacca Comes From Endor, Gays Can't Get Married.

[Caliman73]

13. I love the Chewbaca defense!!

That was hilarious!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

14. Look at the silly monkey! n/t

[VMI Dem]

4. Opposition to gay marriage is not homophobic.

I was reading that on some wacky message board the other day.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

5. yes, i read that too. I AM NOT A HOMOPHOBE NEITHER IS MY GRANDMOTHERR

but we are just against gays having equal rights!!!

and how dare you call my grandmother a bigot?

[VMI Dem]

7. I didn't see any comments like that in this interracial marriage uproar recently.

What is the difference, I wonder?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

10. we have already as a society admitted racism is bad and even though we are still plenty racist

very few of us will admit it publicly

we have not yet established such a link with homophobia

[Toasterlad]

6. "Won't Someone Please Think of the Children!" Is Their Big Gun.

Unfortunately, that's all some people need to hear. Never mind that it's ludicrous to believe that learning about gay people will have an adverse effect on children. Never mind that teaching your child to be a bigot is tantamount to child abuse. Never mind that is a baseless, groundless fear. Morons eat it up.

Hopefully, there are more rational people in Maine than morons. People like this man:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSSd1za_J4I

[eShirl]

8. All the Straight Supremacists have are smears and stupidity.

They claim that banning gay marriage is "pro-marriage."

Makes about as much sense as claiming separate drinking fountains for whites and blacks is "pro-hydration."

[EOTE]

11. This is not my beautiful marriage!

[Q3JR4]

12. For your consideration...

"It turns out that you can build a very effective model by including just three variables:

1. The year in which the amendment was voted upon;
2. The percentage of adults in 2008 Gallup tracking surveys who said that religion was an important part of their daily lives;
3. The percentage of white evangelicals in the state."

<snip>

Below are the dates when the model predicts that each of the 50 states would vote against a marriage ban. Asterisks indicate states which had previously passed amendments to ban gay marriage.

2009 (now)
Vermont
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Maine
Rhode Island
Connecticut
Nevada*
Washington
Alaska*
New York
Oregon*

More here.

Based on the model another writer wrote this article.

Does all of this really mean anything? Who can say? We'll just have to wait and see. Oh, and, donate lots of money to the campaign to keep the marriage law so that we can avoid the California effect.

Q3JR4.
Wary, but optimistically so.