NOM BLOG

HuffPo Writer Argues That "Marriage Equality is Not Enough"

 

No sooner did President Obama come out in favor of redefining marriage as did left-wing writers such as Victoria Coats at the Huffington Post (and doubtless, other places as well) start writing about what they want to happen next if they succeed in redefining marriage, for instance, redefining what marriage is for straight couples as well (and that's just a start!):

"...assimilation into an institution also means assimilation into a particular notion of what's normative and acceptable. Enter: The "Just Like You!" Plea. At the end of the day, inclusion still conforms to a perceived norm, and in doing so, marginalizes other preferences, experiences, and expressions. People in gay relationships (not queer! that's a bad word) just want to buy a house with a picket fence and have 2.5 kids like their mythical heterosexual brothers and sisters. They just want to "raise a family" and take turns walking the dog and emulate the anachronistic norm of patriarchal, economically productive homes. Right? ... No? Okay, so in that case, can we stop pretending like everyone is the same? (And while we're at it can we stop pretending as though "opposite" and "same" sex are in any way accurate or adequate?)

Progressive legislation and equal recognition need not be rallied for on the grounds that all LGBTQ couples are wealthy, white, able-bodied, cis male monogatrons who are "just like you, but gay." Challenging this homo-normative narrative entails acknowledging that the hetero-normative illusion it claims to be "just like" is also a fallacy and furthermore unnecessary as a means for comparison. Do we all have to identify as straight, gay or lesbian, or perform an intelligible gender, or be in "incredibly committed monogamous relationships" to deserve the multiple economic and legal privileges currently provided through marriage?

... "Homosexuality" is not any more natural than "heterosexuality," and, in fact, neither should be conceived as constituting some kind of fixed, continuous entity that can satisfactorily encompass intimate human activity since the beginning of time. After all, it's been only relatively recently that marriage has become marginally less prejudicial than it's been at times in the past, and not long before that was the discursive binary of hetero/homosexuality popularized, so there is absolutely no reason to invoke "nature" here, nor is there a need to concretize acts of sex and intimacy into identity, and identity into institution."

For those who would redefine marriage, nothing will ever be enough.

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