General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Sexual Fetish of Gay Marriage Opponents
The Sexual Fetish of Gay Marriage OpponentsDefenders of DOMA and Proposition 8 say marriage isnt about love or parenting. Its about coitus.
By Mark Joseph Stern|Posted Friday, March 22, 2013, at 6:00 AM
As the Supreme Court prepares to hear Hollingsworth v. Perry and United States v. Windsor, opponents of same-sex marriage have scrambled to answer the central question: What is the governments rational interest in preventing gays from marrying? The standard argument from moral disapproval was revoked by Romer v. Evans and Lawrence v. Texas. The argument that gay marriages undermine the family has been debunked by a decade of same-sex marriage in several countries. So, as Proposition 8 and DOMA wound their way through the courts, gay marriage opponents lit upon a more durable argument, seemingly grounded in science rather than animus or religion. Their case, presented most comprehensively by Princeton professor Robert P. George, is that only sex acts with a dynamism toward reproductionthat is, penile to vaginal intercoursecreate true marriages and lead to legitimate child-rearing. Same-sex marriages, by this theory, are not real marriages, because they do not involve organic bodily union.
This argument puts gay marriage opponents in an awkward position. For years, they said gays were too libidinous and licentious to create stable marriages. Now, as proponents of gay marriage emphasize love, fidelity, and commitment, the right is fetishizing coitus.
The debate between marriage-as-love and marriage-as-coital-vehicle permeates the amici briefs that have flooded the court. Georges amicusan abridged version of his bookpits the hallowed conjugal view of marriage against the destructive revisionist view. According to George, the revisionist view sees marriage as essentially an emotional union, accompanied by consensual sexual activity. The conjugal view, on the other hand, sees marriage as begun by commitment and sealed by sexual intercourse.
Whats so crucial about heterosexual intercourse? According to George, its completed in the acts by which new life is made and therefore is especially apt for and deepened by procreation, and calls for that broad sharing uniquely fit for family life.
-snip-
full article:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/03/gay_marriage_and_sex_why_do_defenders_of_doma_and_prop_8_worship_coitus.html
Lex
(34,108 posts)Older folks marry, sterile (or whatever you choose to call it) people marry, people whose physical disabilities disallow sexual intercourse, etc.
No one is saying these people shouldn't be allowed to marry.
EOTE
(13,409 posts)Anything to bolster their animosity towards those different from them.
Lex
(34,108 posts)EOTE
(13,409 posts)Unless it's for people they don't like.
Lex
(34,108 posts)because it "mixed blood" (or some such) and they used the Bible to justify being against it.
TrogL
(32,822 posts)Craftygal has her tubes tied, I'm old enough and have been exposed to enough stuff that I have no intention of procreation - I'd probably father a disabled child. Yet, the church and state allowed us to marry.
Sheldon Cooper
(3,724 posts)Nowhere in the marriage agreement are they required to swear that they'll at least try to have children. But yet they're allowed to marry - this argument is bogus and the whole world knows it.
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)When it comes down to it, they can't stop thinking about it.
datasuspect
(26,591 posts)but yeah, i agree.
Wounded Bear
(58,664 posts)and controlling how people can share and enjoy sex with others. Sacred feti and and the sanctity of marriage are window dressing.
lapislzi
(5,762 posts)LibertyLover
(4,788 posts)Just in case: