Gay Marriage

I have been outside gardening, where I do a lot of my profound thinking, and decided to write down why I oppose marriage between people of the same sex. On November 4, 2008 by a fairly small majority, the voters of the State of California voted for a constitutional amendment to ban such marriages. Then yesterday, visiting one of my daughters, she made a rather disparaging comment that she was sure I would have voted for the ban, and that she was quite perturbed that it passed. In addition I was forwarded a rather sad email from a young man who was terribly upset that his relationship would not be legalized.

Thinking about my daughter's comment, plus the body language that accompanied it, has occupied my thoughts a little since then. First I would like to remark that it is sad that younger people don't realize that age brings some wisdom with it. You are not just 'an old fool' stuck in your ways, but have had many, many years to see how the world works, how people behave. That is not to say that we are all wise, or all wise in all ways, but at least in most cases experience teaches lessons. Now we have the written word, and easily accessible information on the internet, so the wisdom of the elders counts for very little, whereas in days gone by they were well respected.

I therefore wish to state that I oppose gay marriage for the following reasons:

1. It is quite easy for children to become confused about their sexuality during early puberty. In my native country it was common for children in one-sex schools to have what we called 'crushes' or 'pashes' on older students of the same sex. This was not considered abnormal. I recall being madly in love with one girl about 4 years older, when I was about ten or eleven but it was a stage that passed. With the strong emphasis on homosexual relationships nowadays, I can envision many scenarios where a child could become seriously confused, not to mention guilty. In fact I personally know two men who realized in their 40's that they were not gay after all, and ended up happily married to women they met.

2. I do not think that legalizing what is unnatural is good for civilization. There are already a lot of very strange people in the United States, more so than in most civilized countries. Raising children (thankfully rare) in a gay household must be quite confusing for them, even if they are taught from an early age that it is normal. There must also be unkind comments to deal with from people they know.

3. If you are religious there is the religious argument. I do not belong to any church, but I am not an agnostic. Male and female is the normal and natural thing. It does seem that there are more gays on the planet now, but I have noticed that most of the people I know who are gay (how I hate how that word has been corrupted- I even have a cousin called Gaye - poor thing !) have either mothers who appear to be somewhat masculine in appearance or behavior or fathers who show signs of femininity.

4. The Courts will be flooded with divorce cases, so that cases with children who might need protection will have much delayed Court dates.

5. Churches will be forced to perform marriages their preachers/pastors might strongly object to.

6. A book that I read as a child made rather a strong impression on me. The author wrote that she had decided never to write anything that would corrupt others in any way. That would be rather limiting, but I thought then, and still think, that uplifting stories are terribly important. A vast number of novels published are not really worth the paper they are written on, being full of depravity.

7. It is my belief that a wise civilization safeguards it's children. This is not being done, as our little ones are bombarded with unfortunate examples of the immorality and immaturity of their elders.