jimmy eat jazz
Well-Known Member
People are getting married less and less, (especially liberals) yet they keep crying about marriage. Gay marriage is immensely trivial. People raise awareness on this issue rather than the people dying in Africa. There are people getting tattoos of themselves, protests, etc all for gay marriage yet they are silent on the other issues.
"The bigoted defamation of an opposite opinion, rather than a willingness to listen to it or pay any attention to it. Liberal bigotry is the worst of all, as it thinks it's so enlightened."
This is all coming from someone who is in favor of allowing gays to marry.
I don't get it. If we support same sex marriage and publicly advocate for it, why does this then compel us to publicly advocate for all other causes, such as people dying in Africa. Couldn't we turn this same argument on its head and say the same things to those publicly advocating against same sex marriage? As a practical matter, we only have so much time and energy to advocate publicly for so many causes. It doesn't mean we don't care about other things. This is a stupid argument.
Gay marriage isn't trivial--it's integral to the centuries old struggle of homosexuals to win their acceptance within wider society and to be granted the same rights/privileges of other members of society. That's hardly trivial.
Finally, while I really like Hitchens, I don't go to him to get my opinions/beliefs. I disagree with him. To me, it's not bigotry to fight against those who oppose extending civil rights to all members of society. Just as I don't have to worry about the opinions of the racist or bigot, so I don't have to worry about the opinions of the homophobes. Irrational and baseless opposition to whole groups of people based on crude stereotypes and religious myths does not merit my respectful attention. (As a note, I don't believe all opposition to same sex marriage is motivated by homophobia. I am willing to talk and listen to reasonable people, but at the end of the day I don't see any justifiable reason to oppose granting civil rights to any law abiding citizen.)