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Chaingang -> RE: Conservatism - Philosophy of Intolerance? (8/19/2006 9:36:29 AM)
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Okay, at the risk of being a one idea wanker on the forums I must say this: The gay marriage thing has everything to do with a failure to understand how rights work. (Yes, again with the "ethic of reciprocity." I'm so dull ain't I?)
The ethic of reciprocity, or the "The Golden Rule"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethic_of_reciprocity
Yeah, I have heard the anti-gay marriage arguments before. I have heard how government is going to lose tax monies. How the insurers will lose money having to insure more people. Etc. But I really don't think people think about those precise things at the voting booth. what they think about is denying a right to others because they are unwilling to respect the ethic of reciprocity.
I have even heard how some would argue that gay people have the same rights as non-gay people because gay people have the exact same right to marry a person of the opposite sex. Nice, ain't it? Of course that completely fails to address the issue of how gay people are actually demanding the same right in kind: the ability to marry their lovers and make them legally recognized partners. That's what straight people do: they marry their lovers, not members of the opposite sex (that's just an accident of circumstance). But sure, the argument is a perfectly hateful, mean-spirited load of crap from people that will not reciprocate the rights they feel they must possess and deny to others. Why? Because some people are assholes, that's why.
That the first gay married couple has been divorced is really quite perfect. I love it and applaud it. Why? Because that's the exact same right demanded by everyone else: if the marriage fails they want the right to dissolve the association. That first gay married couple got and received equal treatment.
Perfect!
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