First, a video that made me cry. Philip Spooner, an 86 year old Maine resident, veteran of WWII, and lifelong Republican:
Next, a video that made me laugh. Roy Zimmerman and Laura Love, performing his song, “Summer of Loving”:
Finally, a question:
For those of you who oppose marriage equality, what would it take to convince you that your stance is wrong?
I ask because we’ve got Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and 5 US states. Same Sex Marriage has been legal in the Netherlands since 2000. We’re quickly nearing the point where appeals to how SSM will destroy society can be met with empirical evidence as to how it hasn’t. Bare appeals to tradition (in addition to being logical fallacies) hold less weight the more tradition there is behind SSM.
Because I’m serious about asking what it would take to convince SSM opponents that their stance is wrong, my normal comments policy is not in effect here.
Well, I’ll tell you what changed me. I used to hate homosexuals. It was part of the culture of Australian schools at the time (still is). And I mean I really hated them – I didn’t want them anywhere near me.
But I’ll tell you what helped me change and realize how wrong my views were:
1) Alan Turing. I greatly respected this man for his contribution to computer science. When I found out he was gay – and how the british government caused his premature death by suicide – it was quite a shock to my old views. It showed me that gay people, were PEOPLE – they had the same feelings and the same capacity as other people. Before, I was taught to define gay people as just that – gay people. I was taught to think only of their sexual orientation first, instead of their humanity.
2) I met normal gay people. I met people in school that were gay and who told me. And I was shocked – Australian culture, at that time, had portrayed all gay people as what some would call “flamers”. That stereotype was too easy to make fun of, too easy to ridicule – and that’s what I thought gay people were, a huge stereotype. It took the courage of one member of my class to change my mind a hell of a lot.
3) At this point, I stopped hating gay people, but I still had reservations about their lifestyle. Until I went to university. While taking a first year course in Animal Biology, I was reading about animal behavior – and I found out that homosexuality exists within animals. It’s actually pretty prevalent. And since animals do not have culture, homosexuality cannot be caused by culture. It must be biologically based. And as a human being who respects science, I had no choice but to logically conclude that homosexuals were born that way, and as a result, deserve dignity for who they are. If it’s wrong to hurt people because they were born of a certain race, it MUST be wrong to hurt and discriminate against people who are born with a different sexual orientation.
This understanding that homosexuality was NOT cultural, but BIOLOGICAL in nature, was what made me support Same Sex Marriage. Same Sex marriage would not turn everyone gay. Too many parents fear that this will be the case – that somehow their “children” will turn gay. This is wrong for two reasons: 1) It would not do any such thing and 2) there’s nothing wrong with being gay.
The next time someone says “gay people are evil” or that SSM should not be legalized – remind them about Alan Turing. Remind them about how one of the greatest, most creative, most vital human beings of our time, was crushed and degraded and forced into conditions so bad, he had to commit sucide – all because of the way he was born. All because of what he liked – his preference that hurt no one, that couldn’t hurt anyone.
And if anyone has any respect for science, they must respect Alan Turing. And thus, they must give gay people the respect they deserve.