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The signal we need to send now is that everybody should be getting married. To have those people set up a married kind of lifestyle – often raising kids, by the way many gay couples are raising kids – outside of marriage sends all the wrong cultural signals. We’ve got a generation growing up now, which takes for granted that they’ll be able to live a lifestyle that is very much like marriage, even if in most states it’s not called marriage. They’re already acting married in many cases.
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We’ve got all these gay couples out there. But I think society is at a turning point. It depends on what exactly they’re saying. Why do you think this logic is incorrect? And then, eventually, marriage will lose its special place in society – lose its meaning. Opponents of same-sex marriage, particularly social conservatives, will argue that same-sex marriage could or would hurt traditional marriage because by broadening the definition of marriage, you make it less special – less sacred in a sense. And when straight people start upholding biblical law in civic culture, then maybe gay people should consider it, but not until then. We could also have other debates about what the Bible does and doesn’t mean, but I think what it boils down to is that gay people should deal with the same standards as straight people. And what I don’t understand is why gay people are the only people in America who have to follow biblical law. Jesus himself had nothing to say about homosexuality, but he’s very clear on divorce. Or, you’re talking about, for heaven’s sake, no divorce. If you do biblical marriage, then you’re talking about polygamy. They will say things like, look, both the Old and New Testaments in the Bible are very clear about this: God intended marriage to be between a man and a woman. It’s not something you necessarily expect people to jump into.
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And I’m the first to agree, gay marriage is a significant change it’s a big change. And then, you get a lot of people in between. You get very sympathetic people who say, I really want to do something for gay people, but changing the fundamental boundaries of our most ancient, important institution just goes too far, so let’s do civil unions or something else. You get religious people who will say, God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. I did a lot of traveling with it and talked to a lot of different kinds of audiences. I’ve given a lot of talks on gay marriage in a lot of cities since writing a book about it in 2004 called Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America. What do you think drives the opposition to same-sex marriage? Does it ultimately boil down in many cases to discrimination? Is it that people are just unused to or uncomfortable with the idea of gay people marrying?Īll of the above and much more. Gay people are asking to be part of this social contract – to care for each other so society doesn’t have to. America’s problem is not too many marriages, it’s too few. A society with successful marriages – and a lot of them – is a more stable, safer, more successful society. They need the same caregiving anybody else does. It’s a much lonelier, much more vulnerable life. I think if you asked straight people who have been married or hope to get married to imagine life without marriage, it’s very hard to imagine. It’s “why is marriage good for America?” Same-sex marriage is good for all the same reasons. Well, you got the question right the first time. Why is marriage – I’m sorry, why is same-sex marriage good for America? Interviewer: David Masci, Senior Research Fellow, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life senator.įeaturing:Jonathan Rauch, Senior Writer, The National Journal Rauch, who is openly gay, also authored the 2004 book Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America.Ī counterargument explaining the case against same-sex marriage is made by Rick Santorum, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a former U.S. To explore the case for gay marriage, the Pew Forum has turned to Jonathan Rauch, a columnist at The National Journal and guest scholar at The Brookings Institution. The debate over same-sex marriage in the United States is a contentious one, and advocates on both sides continue to work hard to make their voices heard.