Ethics

Contradictory Anti-Gay Marriage Rhetoric

By Ed Brayton

This Worldnutdaily article highlights a clear contradiction in religious right rhetoric about same-sex marriage. On the one hand, they talk about marriage as a "sacred bond" between a man and a woman; on the other hand, they talk as if the only reason anyone gets married is to get government benefits. Here they're complaining about a bill in California that would extend domestic partnership benefits to any two adults who live together.

But what do we hear from the ADF, the Thomas More Law Center and all the other religious right legal groups when they're pushing bans on same-sex marriage? "This doesn't ban domestic partnership benefits, it just means you can't give them out based on the couple being gay. You have to give them to everyone." But when legislatures try and do that, they're accused, as this article claims, of trying to pass the "last step in eliminating marriage." With rhetoric like this:

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on March 17, 2008 (boomark / email).