by Doug Vance on October 8, 2012

Inspired by the previous blog entry, I decided to take a closer look at the gay marriage issue in particular.

One of the main problems I’m finding with this latest trendy social issue is the requirement for people of Abrahamic faiths to variously support sin indirectly through the system of taxation. This is similar to how a nation-state might view its indirect financing of terrorism: absolutely off limits.

A proponent might dismiss Abrahamic beliefs as generally irrational, seeing certain sin behaviours as merely a matter of taste rather than consequential, but then they are engaging in bigotry themselves.

Another proponent might suggest a tax break compromise, equivalent to that of a gay marriage household, for every person of an Abrahamic faith. Yet, this means people who do not wish to validate the homosexual family unit and who are not of such faith are excluded from the compromise.

So, the gay marriage proponents value the financial benefits of same sex households along with a new form of normative social validity that was once “irrationally” shunned. This is essentially an issue of equal fairness and protection regardless of the specified “harmless” behaviour or lifestyle.

In other words, proponents assert that a homosexual household is no more harmful to self or society (except for mere matters of taste – a freedom of expression right) than a heterosexual household. Thus, equal right for each is justly deserved.

Given our allegiance to liberal democratic foundational principles, gay marriage proponents cannot ultimately fail this battle. I believe opponents will need to put all of their efforts into reprogramming our founding principles themselves in order to win any prolonged battle of ideas in contemporary times.

The conservative problem is that they are engaging in traditionalist fighting on a battlefield designed for an exclusively liberal democratic war. This is part of what lends us the popular belief that today’s liberal and conservative political parties are basically the same, having only some decorative differences for distinction.

Such an observation is not necessarily true. In reality, the outcome of any battle between parties is going to deliver a liberal democratic compatible result in every single case. Probing the gay marriage issue helps reveal this obscured problem.

Tags: egalitarianism, liberalism

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