Reported over at Slate (and various other sites), a
peculiar amicus brief to the Supreme Court regarding gay marriage is in the news. There have reportedly been a few hundred briefs filed and I have not read the vast majority of them. However, I think I can say with confidence that this one is the dumbest bar none.
Filed by a group of "same-sex attracted men and their wives," the brief argues that legalizing gay marriage will demean and harm their own marriages. They are gay men married to straight women who claim that legalizing gay marriage will denigrate their own marriages by implying that their marriages are shams.
Well, first things first. Men, you have some serious issues to get over but you're going to have do it on your own because I don't intend to deal with that here.
Second, your argument is so stupid it has gone all the way around the bend to the other side. You are actually providing a good reason to legalize gay marriage.
In 1967, the Supreme Court decided in Loving v. Virginia that mixed race marriages were legal and nobody drew the conclusion from that that same race marriages were inferior. A majority of people kept right on marrying within their race, some married a different race, and as far as I know, not a single same race couple divorced because the Court had demeaned their marriage.
So, if Loving v. Virginia didn't serve to denigrate the formerly exclusive flavor of marriage back then (same race), why would a gay marriage ruling denigrate any existing marriages of the current exclusive flavor (mixed gender)? The only reason I can think of is because you guys have some inner doubts and conflicts bubbling up now in your own lives.