Cross posted at Dirigo Blue
The Portland Press Herald has this opinion piece this morning, there's lots of proof same-sex marriage will harm the rights of others. Ironically, the author Tim Russell, co-founder of The Maine Marriage Alliance who also serves as a spokesman for The Maine Jeremiah Project, provides no evidence to support any of his claims.
Proof indeed!
Redefining marriage to include homosexual couples would be a profound and fundamental change to society with very troubling and far-reaching implications – since the consequences will occur on a multigenerational frame and will, over time, be irreversible.
There's more:
Russell then lists these "profound and fundamental" changes, many of which you have read before:
Legalizing same-sex marriage in Maine would mean there is no logical, philosophical or legally rational basis for prohibiting people who want multiple wives, multiple husbands or any combination thereof from marrying – as long as they profess love for that person or persons.
Maine's new law does not allow for multiple wives or husbands, and the only people that ever mention this are opponents to same-sex marriage.
Homosexuals have the same constitutional rights and freedoms everyone in Maine enjoys regarding marriage.
By "same constitutional rights," Russell means that a gay man has the same right to marry a woman as a straight man does. Obviously, equal rights regarding marriage do not exist.
Society has always regulated and limited who it allows to marry, and does so to promote the social goods this institution provides.
Society does in fact regulate who it allows to marry. Maine repealed her law banning interracial marriage in 1883; Wyoming did not repeal its ban of whites marrying blacks, Native Americans, or Philippinos until 1965.
Same-sex marriage advocates distort these facts by falsely claiming that a right to marry rests with any couple, when in fact the right rests with the individual.
If the right to marry rests with an individual, shouldn't an individual be able to choose who they will marry? Two individuals do not be a couple until after they are married. My head hurts.
Social science shows conclusively that children do best when raised by their married biological mother and father.
As I noted in my criticism of Bob Emrich's opinion piece last week (Emrich is the Director of the Maine Jeremiah Project), science shows quite the opposite of Russell's claim:
The American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health issued a report in 2002, the most recent comprehensive review of gay-parenting studies. It found no meaningful differences between children raised by gay parents and those raised by heterosexual parents.
The committee reviewed scientific literature encompassing three broad sets of studies. The first set assessed the attitudes, behaviour and adjustments of lesbian and gay parents and found, according to the AAP report, "more similarities than differences in the parenting styles and attitudes of gay and non-gay fathers." Likewise, the research showed that lesbian mothers scored the same as heterosexual mothers in "self-esteem, psychologic adjustment and attitudes toward child rearing."
In states and countries where same-sex marriage is legal, we are already seeing the threat it poses to religious liberties and personal right of conscience.
Russell offers no evidence to support this claim. I'll not bother with trying to find it for him.
Catholic Charities of Boston, an adoption agency in Massachusetts, was forced to abandon placing children because it refused to place them with same-sex couples in violation of its religious tenets and the state refused to pass a religious exemption.
In much the same way that the Catholic Church chooses not to marry same-sex couples, they have also chosen not to offer adoption to same-sex couples. This is the Church's right to do so.
Legal experts on both sides of the same-sex marriage controversy agree that legalizing same-sex marriage is such a radical change to virtually all parts of society that increasing levels of conflict over religious freedom and personal right of conscience will be inevitable – particularly with para-religious entities, such as religious schools, social agencies and small businesses.
These religious liberty conflicts go far beyond whether a pastor would be forced to perform same-sex marriages in violation of his/her doctrine. Maine's same-sex marriage bill does not even come close to adequately preventing these inevitable religious liberty conflicts.
"Para-religious entities" such as social agencies and businesses that offer their services to the public at large are currently barred from discriminating against a person based on their race, gender, class, or sexual orientation. Maine's new law does nothing to change this, but it is of interest that Russell thinks they ought to be allowed to do so.
Russell concludes with:
In Massachusetts, the courts have ruled that parents have no right to prevent the schools from teaching their children that homosexuality and same-sex marriage are completely normal and morally equivalent to heterosexuality and traditional marriage – even though this directly contradicts the values and beliefs these parents hold and want to instill in their own children.
Parents are legally prevented from opting out their children from any such instruction.
Many parents also teach their children that racism is acceptable, and to look down at other races as inferior. By substituting the word "interracial" for "homosexual" in Russell's statement above, one can fully understand the mindset of opponents. That the public schools teach the acceptance of diversity and tolerance of others has had little impact on children whose parents teach racism at home - children continue to become adults that lack tolerance for those different than themselves.
Fortunately, arguments like these presented by Tim Russell will persuade very few of those still undecided on Question 1, the people's veto. They certainly will whip up the fears already in the hearts of homophobes, and this is why it is important for those that support same-sex marriage in Maine to work to see the people's veto defeated.
You can find out how to help at NO on 1/Protect Equality.