I am writing here today to ask the Con Man NOT to tar all conservatives with the same brush that I think he should take to Mike from Jim Crow, Eagle County, US of A.
His straw man example of two guys faking a gay marriage to obtain benefits would have made Rush proud. Set up an isolated situation that plays into your point and pretend that it’s the WAY THINGS ARE – how Hannity-esque.
People will work the system, whatever that system is. I once got a phone call from the father of a South African girl I was dating. He offered me a $1,000 per month in addition to room and board to marry her. Should somebody have been checking in on our bedroom activities? Or would it be OK for us to have a sham marriage just because the plumbing arrangements suit Mike’s sensibilities? What about a couple that stays together for the sake of the children but are not doing all the other things that marriage is about (sex, yes, but also supporting, comforting, helping, listening to and loving one another, in good times and bad)? For my money, that’s less of a marriage than many unsanctioned gay relationships that I’ve seen.
On a smaller scale, anyone who ever snuck into a drive-in theater in the trunk of their buddy’s car is guilty of working the system.
It is a small, mean-spirited soul that assumes the worst of people. Sure, you will have some guys (and girls) scamming the system, but by far the majority of gay/lesbian marriages will be two people who love one another, are committed to the relationship and who deserve the same respect from society and protection under the law as any other pair of people.
Society is, by one definition, a group of people living together under a mutually agreed upon set of rules. The key there is the phrase “mutually agreed upon”. Just because you don’t like a rule (do you ever speed? – I do), doesn’t mean you don’t have to play by those rules, at least until you can get enough people to agree with you and change the rules.
There are, of course, options. Mike, you could move to Iran, where, I have it on very good authority, they have no gay people.
Sincerely,
Michael Campbell