Fascination and Fear

Our fascination with and fear of homosexuality is in the news again following the recent New Jersey Supreme Court opinion which directs the New Jersy Legislature to pass legislation providing for marriage or "civil union" rights for gays and lesbians.

Try as I may, I can't figure out why so many people have such a problem with two men or two women being attracted to each other and demonstrating it.

President Bush in reaction to the Opinion said that marriage was “a union between a man and a woman....I believe it’s a sacred institution that is critical to the health of our society and the well-being of families, and it must be defended."

Assuming that hetrosexual marriage is paramount to the well-being of America, how does homosexual marriage or allowance for civil unions damage it? If a marriage is in trouble, I very much doubt but that the cause is two men or women shacking up down the street, muchless a law that says that the men and women shacking up is legal. I don't see legalizing these relationships sending people in droves away from attraction to the opposite sex with a resultant decline in marriage rates.

Let's move on to the family issue and assume that kids are better off with a father and mother in the house rather than the alternatives of just a father, just a mother or two fathers or mothers. (As an aside, if that is the case, divorce, being "harmful to a sacred institution," should be outlawed and women giving birth out of wedlock should be forced to marry.) Is a kid harmed any more by living with two dads or two moms than with a single parent of either sex?

The answer to that can only be yes if you view homosexuality as evil and exposure to it as harmful.

That brings us to what I think is the underlying reason that so many fear gays. "My God says it is sinful. He isn't using lightning bolts much these days, so I have to use government to enforce his will." My opinion, without facts or objective analysis: I don't think he needs our help to punish sinners and I don't think government is very effective at it either (think scarlet letters and Prohibition).