Andrew Sullivan on The Mormon War on Gay People

Andrew Sullivan, along with others who took advantage of legalization of gay marriage in California, is understandably upset about the recent election result. After all, regardless of your sexual orientation, how would you feel if someone told you that you could not marry the person you chose to marry, for any reason? Having been married to the same woman for over twenty-three years,  I wouldn’t dream of denying Andrew Sullivan the same happiness with his partner. Why are conservatives so opposed to family values for some?

The involvement of the Mormon Church in opposing gay marriage naturally has led to a response from gay individuals and organizations. Sullivan quotes Dan Savage:

When political attacks are launched from churches, political responses will be delivered to churches. If goddamned McDonald’s had organized and paid for Prop 8, we’d be marching on goddamned McDonald’s.

The anti-gay bias over this issue is remarkable in coming from those who really should know better based upon their experiences. Blacks who would be repelled by the idea of laws prohibiting marriage between blacks and whites fail to see that legislating who gay individuals can marry is ethically no different.

Sullivan details a disturbing pattern of Mormons persecuting those who are gay. This is also rather hypocritical considering their history. Sullivan considers their overall world view:

I do not intend in any way to remove a single right from Mormons. I do intend to protest their imposition of their own religious dogma – that marriage is always between a man and a woman and it is eternal and will be replicated in heaven by the couple physically present – on civil rights protections vested in a civil constitution.

Sullivan is rather kind in this paragraph considering the persecution he details elsewhere in his post. While they legally are calling for marriage to be between a man and a woman in California, many are perfectly willing to accept that marriage can be between a man and a woman, and a woman, and a woman, and even some under-aged girls in Utah. A group which has had their religious views of marriage limited by law would hopefully be above using the law to impose their religious views upon others.

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