Argentina’s Senate will begin debate on a proposal to legalize gay marriage across the South American nation after the Chamber of Deputies recently approved a similar measure. Civil unions are already legal in the capital Buenos Aires and a few other provinces, but recent annulments of gay marriages by the Supreme Court have forced the issue into the legislature. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has said she will not veto the bill if it arrives on her desk.
Of course, as in most countries, the Argentine nation is divided on this hot-button issue. Buenos Aires, a sprawling, cosmopolitan metropolis, is one of the most gay-friendly places in all of Latin America, but much of Argentina is rural, and thus traditional and conservative. The Catholic Church, whose crass worldview is thankfully marginalized from any serious political power in the United States, is still a potent force in much of Latin America (despite dwindling numbers over the last few decades, thanks largely to the efforts of evangelical missionaries, so this isn’t necessarily a good thing). The church has no problem asserting its will on the population, and using the threat of fire and brimstone to bully the people. In Mexico City, church leaders have no qualms about threatening politicians (and doctors, justices of the peace, etc.) with excommunication should they support abortion, gay marriage, or any other issue deemed unsavory by the evil machinations of the bitter, repressed old men who run that atrocity known more commonly in the world as the Catholic Church. But I digress.
When you take a look at the arguments of anti-gay marriage protestors and rabble rousers in Argentina, they are the same, tired hate speech seen in every part of the world that struggles with the issue. The old bit about “natural law” is perhaps the most aggravating. Since when did civil law have anything to do with nature, and since when did things like gravity and magnetism suddenly come under threat from gay marriage? The other argument is that children need a mother and father, or else the structure of society will come toppling down. Yet you don’t see these hypocrites running to the orphanariums to snatch up all those poor, future ”social pariahs” in order to save the nation, and you certainly don’t see them outlawing divorce, or better yet, forcing single parents to get married. Wouldn’t that be something to see? And finally, these haters argue that the law shouldn’t be made to accomodate a small minority, as that subverts majority rule, the very essence of democracy. I guess they haven’t heard of the “tyranny of the majority.” Of course, changing the law to accomodate a minority doesn’t infringe legally, physically, or emotionally on the majority in any way, so it’s really a moot point. It’s not like all marriages will have to be gay ones from this point forward. Geez.
Come to think of it, all these redundant arguments against gay marriage are so silly and transparent, and so obviously so, that I wonder sometimes why I waste my precious time on debunking them. I guess it’s out of anger and outrage at the stupidity in the world. I guess the horse just needs to be led to the water again, and again, and again. But heck, even then you can’t get the son of a bitch to drink!
(From BBC News)
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