Tag Archives: gay rights

Gay marriage: A slippery slope to polygamy?

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Opponents of gay marriage have often raised the specter that it will inevitably lead to the legalization of polygamy. This has been an effective tactic because while homosexuality has enjoyed growing social acceptance, polygamy remains unpopular.

Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer explained in a 2006 Washington Post editorial how the legalization of polygamy follows logically from gay marriage:

After all, if traditional marriage is defined as the union of (1) two people of (2) opposite gender, and if, as advocates of gay marriage insist, the gender requirement is nothing but prejudice, exclusion and an arbitrary denial of one’s autonomous choices in love, then the first requirement — the number restriction (two and only two) — is a similarly arbitrary, discriminatory and indefensible denial of individual choice.

The relative success of gay marriage, it seems, has already inspired new efforts to legalize polygamy. Last week, George Washington law professor Jonathan Turley filed a legal challenge to Utah’s anti-polygamy statutes on behalf of his plaintiffs, Kody Brown and his four wives. The Browns are the subject of the hit reality show “Sister Wives.”

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A new focus in the gay rights debate

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I’m not a fan of conservative commentator Michael Medved, but his recent USA Today op-ed made some instructive points about the gay rights debate.

The nation’s increasingly visible and influential gay community embraces the notion of sexual orientation as an innate, immutable characteristic, like left-handedness or eye color. But a major federal sex survey suggests a far more fluid, varied life experience for those who acknowledge same-sex attraction.

The results of this scientific research shouldn’t undermine the hard-won respect recently achieved by gay Americans, but they do suggest that choice and change play larger roles in sexual identity than commonly assumed. … While pop-culture frequently cites the figure of one in 10 (based on 60-year-old, widely discredited conclusions from pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey) the new study finds only 1.4% of the population identifying with same-sex orientation.

Moreover, even among those who describe themselves as homosexual or bisexual (a grand total of 3.7% of the 18-44 age group), overwhelming majorities (81%) say they’ve experienced sex with partners of the opposite gender. Among those who call themselves heterosexual, on the other hand, only a tiny minority (6%) ever engaged in physical intimacy of any kind with a member of the same sex.”

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A secular argument against gay marriage

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Take a cursory glance at this blog and you’ll notice that I often write about homosexuality. The issue of gay marriage in particular has received a lot of discussion here—and not all of it well-informed.

I find the case for gay marriage to be far more compelling than the case against, but I think some of my fellow gay marriage proponents overstate the weakness of the opposing view. Objections to gay marriage are often summarily dismissed as religious, bigoted, or a combination of the two. This is unfair.

Religion and bigotry animate a lot of the opposition to gay marriage, no doubt. But there is, in my estimation, at least one viable secular argument against gay marriage—that is, an argument that doesn’t make an appeal to faith or prejudice. Here is the abbreviated version:

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Glenn Beck and the LDS Church condemn anti-gay bullying

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Anti-gay bullying and the recent gay youth suicides have been making headlines lately. It’s tragic that these things are even issues in the 21st century, but I’m glad the media are drawing attention to them.

I want to share with you a few stories related to anti-gay bullying and gay youth suicides. The first is a video of Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns. Fighting back tears, he shared his personal story as a gay man and assured gay teens that “it gets better.” Please watch. His message is an important one.

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National Coming Out Day

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October 11th is internationally recognized as National Coming Out Day. And in commemoration, I’m coming out as bisexual (in theory) and asexual in (practice). Ha ha.

Coming out is not a single event; it is instead a constant process. Here are just two coming outs of mine: Four years ago today, I came out to a straight LDS friend with a confession of my feelings for him. And more recently, I came out on this blog “as a proud member and supporter of the LGBT community.”

For me, the hardest person to come out to was myself. I was in denial about my sexuality for years as a Mormon. I joke that my parents knew I was bisexual long before I did (the internet history probably tipped them off). I didn’t really come to terms with my orientation until my junior or senior year of high school, around the time when I left the LDS Church.

If you’re LGBT and you haven’t come out yet, I’d encourage you to. It’s liberating, and there’s no better form of LGBT activism. And if you’re already open about your sexuality, please share your coming out stories in the comments.

LDS.org edits Packer’s conference talk

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The official transcripts of last weekend’s general conference were published today at LDS.org. The Mormon blog Nine Moons was astute enough to notice that there were a few significant changes made to President Boyd K. Packer’s controversial remarks about homosexuality.

Here is what Packer said in conference:

We teach the standard of moral conduct that will protect us from Satan’s many substitutes and counterfeits for marriage. We must understand that any persuasion to enter into any relationship that is not in harmony with the principles of the gospel must be wrong. From The Book of Mormon we learn that “wickedness never was happiness.”

Some suppose that they were preset, and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural. Not so. Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone? Remember, he is our Father.

Paul promised, “God will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (paraphrased I Cor 10:13)

You can if you will, break the habits, and conquer the addiction, and come away from that which is not worthy of any member of the Church. As Alma cautioned, we must watch and pray continually. Isaiah warned of them that call evil good and good evil. That put darkness for light and light for darkness. That put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

And here is the text version on LDS.org today:

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October 2010 General Conference review

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You can read my review of April’s conference here.

Last weekend was LDS General Conference. And being the masochist I am, I not only watched conference, but attended a session also. (If you’ve never gone to general conference as a nonbeliever, you ought to—it’s quite the spectacle.)

I watch general conference because it is an important cultural phenomenon; it helps me keep a pulse on what the Mormon community is thinking and feeling. I can’t blame you for not watching it, though, so I’m going to share with you my brief summary of conference.

This general conference was the usual blend of banality, tedium, pablum, emotionalism, anti-intellectualism, and moralization.

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LDS teachings on sex are contradictory and untenable

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This post is loosely a part of my general conference series, but it also makes the case that LDS teachings on sex are contradictory and untenable.

First, consider what Mormon leaders historically taught regarding birth control:

The world teaches birth control. Tragically, many of our sisters subscribe to its pills and practices when they could easily provide earthly tabernacles for more of our Father’s children. … The first commandment given to man was to multiply and replenish the earth with children. That commandment has never been altered, modified, or canceled. The Lord did not say to multiply and replenish the earth if it is convenient, or if you are wealthy, or after you have gotten your schooling, or when there is peace on earth, or until you have four children. – Ezra Taft Benson, April 1969 General Conference

God made sex, but not for entertainment. It was provided for a divinely appointed act of creation in which we, to this extent, become co-creators with him. – Mark E. Peterson, April 1969 General Conference

[I]f anything were done to postpone [the responsibility of motherhood], the Church would become a party to birth control, and the Church will have nothing to do with that evil. – David O. McKay, April 1949 General Conference

Sexual laxity among young people, birth control, and intemperance are its insidious and vicious enemies. – David O. McKay, October 1947 General Conference

Another erosion of the family is unwarranted and selfish birth control. – Spencer W. Kimball, October 1979 General Conference

We hear so much about emancipation, independence, sexual liberation, birth control, abortion, and other insidious propaganda belittling the role of motherhood, all of which is Satan’s way of destroying woman, the home, and the family—the basic unit of society. – N. Eldon Tanner, October 1973 General Conference

The above is just a small sampling of the church’s statements on birth control. You can read many others at these links.

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