Christopher Hitchens on gay marriage
» Sodomitical Polity
From a characteristically idiosyncratic essay by Christopher Hitchens on gay marriage.
... Why are the advocates of the one and only and immemorial man-woman marriage apparently so chronically insecure? On the same floor as the Hitchens family live two chaps, who are as clearly spliced as any couple I know. They hold responsible Washington jobs, they take an interest in the civic health of the city, and they help raise the children of a previous marriage into which one of them had entered. (Never forget, by the way, the forgotten hell that was the consequence of pressure for gay people to try to marry heterosexuals and make a go of things.)
In any domestic emergency involving my wife or daughter, I would probably turn first to these neighbors. The only discomfiting thing I find about their domestic arrangements is their practice of clasping hands for grace before meals. ...
One good thing about gay nuptials: It'd drive the mullahs mad.
Comments
I agree with Mr.Hitchens in that I don’t see a problem with gay marriage. I do however see a problem with government sponsored privaleges for people who are married regardless of their gender becauase I feel church and state should be seperate and marriage is traditionally a church sponsored event. If the government rewards couples for getting married it is to an extent sponsoring a religious act. I don’t see business partnerships being rewarded. I have always felt that people were missing the point altogether. The issue of gay marriage is nothing more than a civil rights debate and it shows us that America is still quite bigoted.
Posted by: Brent | June 24, 2004 10:46 PM
Let the government stay out of marriage I say! Civil Unions for anyone that wants legal recognition of their partnership, gay or straight) and let religious organizations decide individually who they are prepared to ‘marry’.
Who could object to that (except those who want a theocracy?)
Posted by: aello | November 20, 2004 7:28 PM