Gay Marriage IS Legal Already!

Did you know that gay marriage is acceptable by law in all fifty states?

I’m not joking. Nobody seems to realize it, but gay marriage is already legal now, and what’s more, it’s been legal for as long as anyone can remember. In fact, in any country of the world where the institution of marriage is recognized, homosexuals are allowed to marry with impunity.

I’ll bet you didn’t realize that yesterday when the California Supreme Court wielded their tyrannical power to assault the bedrock fundamentals of representative democracy.

When I heard of this decision, I was literally shaking with rage. How dare four people inflict their policy preferences on the rest of us with no regard for the will of the people. How dare they erode an ancient, fundamental institution of civilization that predates America by thousands of years to suit the political fashions of the day.

Shame on them. And shame on us if we let them get away with it.

Here’s the high-minded language of the despots who would dismantle our republic:

“Our state now recognises that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person, and responsibly to care for and raise children, does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation, and more generally that an individual's sexual orientation — like a person's race or gender — does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights. “

Thus saith four Californian pinheads in black robes.

Where to start? Who on earth is disputing that anyone, anywhere, has the “capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship?” Tell me what legal rights have been withheld from or denied to anyone?

To compare this to race or gender is preposterous. No one’s being enslaved or denied due process here. We’re not even talking “separate but equal.” Everyone, everywhere, of any race, color, creed, sexual orientation or Troy McClure-style attraction to marine life has the right to get married.

And no one has the right to radically redefine what marriage is.

Make no mistake - that’s what the Court is doing. They’re making new rights by discarding old ones. Marriage is a contract recognized by the state which, by definition, can only be entered into by one man and one woman. Homosexuals can and do get married, but many of them, for obvious reasons, choose not to. To say they have a right to change the rules to suit their preferences is ludicrous, regardless of whether or not homosexuality is entirely genetic or includes an element of choice. That would be akin to saying that short people have a right to play in the NBA.

Consider this analogy, which, like the NBA one, is flawed, but, I believe, still makes the point. I have two college degrees – a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theater from the University of Southern California, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Brigham Young University. The first degree cost a lot of money and took four years to get, and it qualifies me to work in some of your finer fast food restaurants. The second degree was less expensive, took half the time, and has been instrumental in advancing my career.

But in both cases, each degree had its requirements. To get the degree, I needed to take a certain amount of classes, and while there was some flexibility as to which classes I took, I couldn’t expect to substitute a course in yoga for my required accounting credit and expect BYU to hand me one of their diplomas with an MBA on it.

Similarly, there are hordes of online sources where you can just about any degree on earth – BFA, MBA, PhD, whatever – from any number of “non-accredited universities.” These degrees cost a nominal fee – maybe fifty bucks or so – and they come with nothing but a pretty diploma. All respectable businesses and educational institutions ignore them, because they don’t begin to represent the kind of effort, skill, and commitment that comes with an MBA from a real university. Once you decide an MBA is whatever you say it is and recognize all of them equally, whether some are accounting based, yoga based, or include no course credit it all, then the MBA becomes meaningless.

Heterosexuals don’t have the right to change the rules any more than homosexuals do. I spoke to a lifelong friend a couple of days ago who just broke off a three-year, intense relationship with a girl he loved dearly but who was no longer interested him. (That’s another story entirely.)

Anyway, he runs a Facebook page, and he now lists his status as “divorced.” He explained that by saying it was his way of “honoring what we had between us.”

Well, not to belittle my friend, but what he had was not a marriage. His choice of a word associated with marriage reveals his own grudging respect for the power of the institution, but it also shows a willingness to bend the definition to suit his own purposes. He, like plenty of people who seek the companionship of folks of their own gender, had, in the words of the California pinheads, “establish[ed] a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person.” Legally, he could have that relationship recognized by the state, and he chose not to, no matter how much he wants to “honor” the past. I could call myself a Physical Therapist to “honor” the work I’m doing with my personal trainer, and it would mean about the same thing.

Many proponents of this decision repeatedly ask how this decision threatens my own individual marriage. Of course, it doesn’t – it’s not aimed at individuals. It takes aim at the institution itself. Look for polygamy now to become legal. Look for every conceivable relationship – between relatives, between animals, between people and inanimate objects – to wind up included in the definition. Suddenly, when everything is marriage, there will be no such thing as marriage.

And one of the basic building blocks of civilization will have crumbled into dust.