I fail to understand why the Star Tribune continues to provide a soap box for Katherine Kersten’s misinformation pieces on the presumed horrors of same-sex marriage. On Wednesday she provided a nightmarish list of horrors being supposedly inflicted on God-fearing Christians north of the border as a result of Canada’s legalization of same-sex marriage:
'In Canada, "privileging" male-female marriage in any way is now a violation of human rights.'
'Terms such as husband and wife are now forbidden across the spectrum of Canadian law and government programs.'
'People who disagree with same-sex marriage risk charges of hate speech.'
The ultimate outcome, she contends, is nothing less than the totalitarian dictatorship of the state.
Contrary to Ms Kersten’s assertions, belief in ‘traditional marriage’ has not been declared illegal in Canada. People are not being persecuted by the state for privately holding heterosexual marriage to be superior. No heterosexual marriages have been threatened, annulled or put at risk because of same-sex marriage.
News alert, Katherine – the revolution you so fear has been going on for quite some time now. The concept of ‘traditional marriage’ itself has undergone numerous revisions in recent centuries – not that long ago it meant marriage for life with no prospect of divorce, and only to a member of your own race. Same-sex marriage is being used by the conservatives in the same way that the fear of interracial marriage was used a generation or two ago.
All of this is predictable fear-mongering designed to garner support for the proposed constitutional amendment to ban the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships in this state. Ms Kersten fails to mention that such a change, if passed into law, would do nothing to protect the presumed sanctity of heterosexual marriage. Far from simply banning gay marriage, the amendment is designed to make illegal a wide range of existing rights, benefits and protections currently provided to people in both same-sex and heterosexual non-married relationship. Developments elsewhere in the US have already shown where such laws will take us – domestic partner benefits will be made illegal, access to protection against domestic violence denied, non-married people (gay or straight) prevented from fostering or adopting children.
It’s not really about marriage, but rather part of a concerted effort by the extreme right to deny any legal recognition for gay people and their families. It would turn the clocks back fifty years in this state. It is not the gay marriage advocates who are the revolutionaries, but rather the anti-gay conservatives who are trying to bring about a social revolution ‘with consequences no one can predict’. To rephrase Kersten herself, if someone tells you that the anti-gay constitutional amendment won’t affect your marriage and your rights as a heterosexual, tell them to look to Ohio and Utah. The evidence is building.
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