…discrimination against any class of people for any reason in the Constitution of Virginia? I hope not.
Shall we codify…
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Barnie: I thought you were for big government!
It’s indeed refreshing to hear that you don’t think that amending the Constitution is the answer.
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Let me preface my question to Barnie by making it clear that I am undecided on the merits of a state constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. My mind is still open. But I do have a question for those who oppose such an amendment on the grounds that it “discriminates” against a particular class of people.
If it’s OK to permit same-sex marriage, is it then OK to permit polygamy? We are, after all, a multi-cultural society with a not insignificant number native-born Africans and Middle Easterners practicing animism or Islam in our midst. How is polygamy any less legitimate than same-sex marriage? How is “discriminating” against gays any different than discriminating against polygamists (who, after all, theoretically should be protected by the right to practice their own religion)?
Polygamists are not agitating at the moment for recognition. But it is hard to see how they could be denied once the proponents overturned the logic that “marriage” is an institution between one man and one woman.
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My belief is that private behaviors beteen consenting adults, so long as those behaviors have no adverse affect on any third party who has not, or cannot, consent as a third party, is none of the government’s goddamn business. Now, before I am assailed with a lot of ‘what ifs’ on drug use, or two consenting adults conspiring to commit murder, and so on, read carefully the caveat.
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Speaking of amendments, Bob Lewis, with the AP, has a story up tonight detailing uprecedented effort to do just that. House and Senate this year, 76 amendment bills were filed–15 of which are still alive. “Among them are measures that would ban marriage (or anything resembling it) for same-sex couples, abolish the personal property tax on private cars and ban the General Assembly from incorporating churches,” according to Bob. All in all? Ridiculous!
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I get so hazy about all these amendments. Which one was the one that finally rooted out the polygamy epidemic? Oops! maybe the constitution (state or federal) isn’t the place to get this problem (if it is one) solved, after all.
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There appears to be a rather obvious and sound libertarian case to be made for gay marriage. Yet, no one, it seems will address the clear path to other marriage arrangements like polygamy that likely would result from a recognition of gay marriage. Is it wise to cast aside the useful order of our culture for the plain danger of an agenda that seeks to reengineer and dismantle the organic arrangements of society?
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John, in answer to your question, probably not. In further answer though, this organic arrangement you note is largely a myth. This ‘tradtitional family’ we hear so much about is closer to a single mother and two kids than not. But myths are important, too. As were Ozzie and Harriet. The tug of imagined touch-stones is real–and a good and necessary requirement.
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