Thursday, June 4, 2009

I'm Troubled

I believe in the basic principle that there are always two sides to every story. Disagreement and consensus building makes our democracy great and our individual relationships interesting enough to be worth the trouble.

With that said, I had some trouble with a recent list that I found on the desktop of one of my students' laptops following a group work session. Now, I'm not sure whether this student believes in the notions expressed below, but it did give me pause. I reflected on some of the recent battles being waged about gay marriage in our country--California's Proposition 8 the most visible of the handful.

Are these really the arguments that stifle the gay rights movement? Help me make sense of this...please


10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage should be Illegal


1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britney Spears 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.
7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.
9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like

Is gay marriage the next great civil rights issue of the United States? Check out this mini-debate between gay marriage advocate Gavin Newsom and opponent Maggie Gallagher.

Also interesting:

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

i feel as if this person was just bs-ing, because most of them didnt make any sense btw its jamee i want extra credit lol

Brendon Jobs said...

I think you're right Jamee, for the most part. But the basic premises that the author sets out before s/he elaborates really ARE arguments that people use again the gay rights cause.

Anonymous said...

I was looking on google for "10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage Should Be Illegal" and I found this web site
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/pdx/102351114.html. It is a copy of the list that you found on a lap top. I can't think of a good reason why someone would spend their time writing an unintelligent and curl list like this. People should be allowed to love and marry who the want no matter what if they are gay, straight, bi, black, white, or purple. Love is Love

Peace =]

nia said...

I agree with jamee. most of this stuff is a bunch of bull. Like the fact that people wil lwant to marry their dogs....thats way blow out of proportion and is nowhere near similar to gay marriage. I do agree however that it against against most religions but America doesn't consist of only 1 religion. Like the person above me said, love is love.

cydney lover 6th period said...

i agree also love can be found in the most weirdest places. I think the person who wrote this uncivilized list is going to get struck by lightning. This is mean, it doesn't matter wether your gay or straight a person can love anybody they please. i don't know why they wanted their time writing this ridiculous laws or list whatever, because it doesn't even make sense.

Kerienne said...

it's a SATIRICAL view of it. we all know that (unfortunately) Americans don't reject polyester!
it's highlighting the bullcrap reasons behind why people won't accept gay marriage.
read between the lines, people!