Saturday, May 16, 2009

They're Here. They're Queer. We're Dealing With It.

One of the hardest lessons to learn as free people is how to resist the urge of I don't like X, so X ought to be illegal. The conservatives haven't mastered it. The liberals haven't mastered it. The libertarians try, but it isn't always easy.

Gay marriage here in Iowa is a perfect example of this tendency at work. Many of us were raised to believe that homosexuality is wrong. As free people we certainly have every right to believe that if we choose. Things that are "wrong" should be illegal, right? Not necessarily.

Libertarians believe that as long as the action doesn't harm anyone else, it should remain legal. The government shouldn't be in the business of enforcing morality for its own sake. Do we really want the likes of Bill Clinton, Larry Craig, Rod Blagojevich, Richard Nixon or J. Edgar Hoover defining morality for us anyway?

When we use the force of government to impose our own morality on "those people" (whoever that may be), we have to realize that we are all "those people" to somebody else. I'm not gay, but there are certainly those in this country who would view me as one of "those people" who needs to have different values imposed upon.

Some would view me as "one of those" kooky gun owners in need of regulation and registration. Some would view me as "one of those" evil white males in need of some reverse discrimination to put things right. My support of a third party might even land me on the Dept. of Homeland Security's list of "those" darned domestic terror suspects. Sooner or later we all end up on the receiving end of these attempts at government "redistribution of values." It is better if the government just protects our rights and leaves the moralizing to we the people.

The so-called "values voters," who may be opposed to gay marriage, can console themselves that the seemingly wide support for it is not necessarily part of some headlong rush toward mindless hedonism and away from all "traditional values." As reason contributor Jonathan Rauch points out:

"Here's something in the [ABC-Washington Post] poll data which is revealing, if indirectly. Rising support for [same-sex marriage] is accompanied by increased support for legalizing illegal immigrants and decriminalizing marijuana—but also by a decline in support for gun control. A new poll from Pew confirms the turn against gun control, and adds that opposition to abortion is growing."

After Rauch wrote this article, a Gallup poll showed a majority of Americans identifying themselves as pro-life for the first time since the poll started. Rauch continues:

"What does all of that have to do with gay marriage? Just this: It suggests that [same-sex marriage] is part of a libertarian shift in values—not a libertine shift or a flight from values altogether. The public increasingly rejects the claim that gay marriage harms a third party (as abortion does) or violates anyone's rights (as gun control arguably does)." [My thanks to Advocates of Liberty for posting a link to that article.]

So gay marriage might not be the end of the world as we know it. That is probably why Iowans have mostly responded to the gay rights mantra of "We're here! We're queer! Deal with it!" with a collective shrug and an "Okay."

Really, we don't care. Now shut up, our favorite show is on!

2 comments:

  1. You cannot rationalize away the fact that an increase in Iowa's homosexual population will be accompanied by an increase in HIV and in predatory assaults on young males by homosexual men who define their entire existence and life by their sexual deviance. The Catholic church does not have an exclusive on homosexual predators and teenage sons of single mom's are particularly targeted and vulernable.

    This is not a matter of "live and let live". This is an all-out assault on Christianity and family values. Look at Canada, where similar "hate crime" laws as those being pushed HARD down our throats prohibit Christian pastors from even teaching parts of the Bible. Our children are being indoctrinated at extremely young ages in their schools that homosexuality is OK. Compare the homosexual suicide rate to that of heterosexuals. Homosexuals have serious mental issues and forcing the rest of us to tolerate and embrace them will not change that.

    I believed in the "live and let live" approach until these attacks on normal (yes, Normal is the correct term since homosexuality is abnormal and un-natural in every respect) folks. Since they are not content to close their curtains and keep their mouths shut about their sexual deviances, like normal folks, they have lost any respectability in my view. Where they think penises should be inserted has NO PLACE in politics, classrooms, or decent society.

    We now see the extreme to which this is going already in the so-called Hate Crimes bill in Congress, more commonly known as the Pedophile Protection Act, which is precisely what it is. There is no limit to how low this will go.

    Stick your head in the sand. Tell yourself you do not care about your 1st Amendment rights, though you claim to care about the 2nd. Just remember, even the innocent citizens of Sodom and Gommorah were not spared when the time of reckoning came.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for your comments SRath. Even though we might not agree on everything, it's nice to see that you've put some thought into this issue. You're certainly entitled to your opinion. Allow me to address a few of your points:

    SRath:"This is an all-out assault on Christianity and family values."

    --I agree that there IS a bias against Christianity by the liberal intelligentsia in this country. I don't like that.

    SRath:"Look at Canada, where similar 'hate crime' laws as those being pushed HARD down our throats prohibit Christian pastors from even teaching parts of the Bible."

    --True. I would oppose most of these, certainly at the federal level (no the feds' Constitutional job), and certainly any that restricts freedom of speech or religion.

    SRath:"Our children are being indoctrinated at extremely young ages in their schools that homosexuality is OK."

    --Exactly why we need to restore the separation of school and state. Then we could send our kids to Christian schools.

    SRath:"Compare the homosexual suicide rate to that of heterosexuals."

    --Maybe they're bummed that they can't get married most places. But seriously, that too is between them and God.

    SRath:"Since they are not content to close their curtains and keep their mouths shut about their sexual deviances, like normal folks, they have lost any respectability in my view."

    --"Normal folks" are sexual deviants too? They're just quiet about it?

    SRath:"Where they think penises should be inserted has NO PLACE in politics, classrooms, or decent society."

    --But where YOU think penises should be inserted does? Please refer to the fist paragraph of the original post.

    SRath:"Tell yourself you do not care about your 1st Amendment rights, though you claim to care about the 2nd."

    --I DO care about the 1st Amendment. Not sure what gave you the impression I didn't.

    Again, thank you for the spirited comments and debate. I may not agree with all you say, but I'll fight to my death your right to say it. (To paraphrase the famous quote.)

    ReplyDelete

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