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The Meaning of Marriage: It Can Be An Art Project

By Fannie

A gay man and a heterosexual woman have married, as part of a "university art project." Despite their nuptials, they both say they will continue to date other people.

I highlight cases like these, where people subvert the marriage-exists-for-procreation argument, from time to time to point out how mendacious it is for "marriage defenders" to claim that marriage is and always has been an institution for one man and one woman to create and then raise their biological children together.

The truth is, marriage means different things for different people. For some it is about companionship. For others it is about financial security. And yes, for some, it is indeed about creating and then raising children. It can be about all of these things or none of them.

In this particular case, marriage is not being used for "responsible procreation" at all. And, because procreation is not a legal requirement of marriage despite the "marriage defense" insistence that it's the very core of marriage, these art students are allowed to marry and call it an art project. Indeed, the wife in this marriage has no intention of having procreative sex with her new hubby and will, instead, have potentially-procreative sex with men who are not her husband. Rather than ensuring responsible procreation, at least as "marriage defenders" define it, we see here that legal marriage is actually an impediment to it.

As an interesting twist, despite the fact that you often hear the anti-gay set insist that gay people should Just Marry Members of the Other Sex If They Want To Get Married So Badly, it has been amusing to watch them now add But but but, this isn't what we meant! What we meant was, gay people have to marry and also have sex with people of the other sex! They can't just live together! As the director of a group called "Christian Voice" opines:

"Marriage is not an art project, it is the life-long union of man and woman and part of that is the sexual act, which is there for companionship and the raising of children."

Got it.

It's almost like these anti-gay folks don't know that there's a word for "having sex with" people you don't want to have sex with. Yet another admission that puts my opinion of "traditional marriage," as defined by anti-gay folks, in the shitter.

Full post as published by Fannie's Room on January 18, 2011 (boomark / email).