What Really Protects Marriage?

The Christianists and Mormons who are pushing the anti-gay marriage initiatives, particularly Proposition 8 in California, whine ad nausea that the anti-gay constitutional amendments are to "protect marriage." How do they protect marriage? In point of fact, they do not - something the principal organizers behind the initiatives know full well. What they do is stigmatize gays, give anti-gay bigots a means of pointing out that gays are not equal and that even the laws recognize such inferiority. Of course, these initiatives are also bringing in huge amounts of money to line the pockets of "professional Christians" and Mormons in the leadership of the movement - the money is the icing on the cake if you will. If these people REALLY wanted to protect marriage, they would be pushing for things far different than the anti-gay measures now under consideration. Here are some thoughts of what could be done if protecting marriage were really the agenda:

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1. One obvious first step would be to recognize that sexual orientation is not a choice and that it cannot be changed. If this was done thousands if not millions of marriages would not occur where gays marry in the false hope that they can become straight. Like my own former marriage, these marriages are doomed and it is only a question of when they fail, not if they fail. I cannot count the number of LGBT people I know who like myself married and had children only to have it all fall apart eventually.

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2. As Fr. Geoff points out on his blog, steps could be implemented so that couples cannot hastily and recklessly enter into marriage without thinking through what they are doing. While I loath most things Catholic beacuse of the moral bankruptcy of the Church hierarchy, Fr. Geoff lists off some common requirements for marriage in the Catholic Church - something I myself had to do (not that it help address my denial and repression of my true sexual orientation).

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3. Implement some of the proposals of the Interfaith Alliance which OPPOSES an anti-gay amendment to the U. S. Constitution: (i) Raise the public’s consciousness of the dignity and importance of women in our still deeply patriarchal society; (ii) increase the minimum wage and offer tax breaks to the working poor so that spouses can see each other for quality lengths of time, rather than briefly passing on their way to two jobs; (iii) encourage family planning; (iv) start a plan to deal with domestic violence; and (v) work to cover mental health care in medical insurance policies so serious emotional difficulties can be prevented from tearing marriages apart.

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Sadly, you will not see the gay marriage foes pushing for such programs. They are the same crowd who want lower taxes which would result in slashing the budgets for family supportive programs, a raw form of capitalism that eats up families and individuals, and who want abortion outlawed but who are missing in action all too often when it comes to supporting children and low income families. Liars and hypocrites best describe these folks in my view.