Fact: The United States of America is a radical social experiment. The reason gay marriage has been found constitutional in some states is not because of “reactionary activist judges”, it's because these judges have looked at their constitutions and concluded that there is no compelling public interest in denying these rights. This is not about extending a right. It's about ending the arbitrary denial of an already existing right. The government has no duty to strengthen the institution of marriage, and nothing about same-sex marriage would prevent private citizens and groups from promoting marriage in any ways they think important.
That
being said, most of the civil rights we take for granted now were
considered radical when first proposed. But they could only be called
'social experiments' by those who believe it is experimentation to give
women the right to vote, or to liberate enslaved black people.
But,
in terms of experimentation, marriage has been subjected to it for
centuries, as values and laws have changed. An experiment is the
evaluation of the application of variables against a control. There is
no marriage 'control', because marriage has thousands of different
meanings all over the world, and hundreds of meanings in the USA, all
different today than they were 100 years ago. An experiment under these
conditions would be pointless. Data are being generated daily on the
steady decline of marriages in the general population, starting long
before the first same-sex marriage, and there are many theories about
cause and effect. Bad economies are known to reduce marriages. But
long-term global data, analyzed and controlled as rigorously as
possible, show no correlation between gay marriage and reduced total
marriages. Any other conclusion would be counter-intuitive as well:
marriage doesn’t rely on exclusivity for strength (“Well, if they let
those people get married then it has no value to me.”)
State
Representative Paul Stam has worried recently about the “depreciation”
of marriage if this amendment fails. The real depreciation of the
institution comes from the use of rhetoric like this which equates
marriage with club membership and ignores the appreciation resulting
from millions of people fighting for the right.
As many
on the television program Antiques Roadshow are announcing when they
say, “I don’t care what it’s worth, it’s priceless to me,” depreciation
is only a concern when comparing value to what others think. If you
decide not to engage in something because others say it has no value,
then you are responsible for the depreciation.
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