[extropy-chat] Gay marriage in Spain, a world of change

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

Samantha Atkins wrote:
> 
> On Jul 20, 2005, at 9:01 AM, Evan Hamlin wrote:
> 
>> To put gay marriages on the same level as heterosexual marriages is  
>> to declare that our society views homosexuality as being as normal  as 
>> heterosexuality, which makes no sense in the natural order of  mankind 
>> or all other animals.
> 
> No.  It says that these relationships are just as deep, just as real  
> and that people of same sex orientation have the same rights as  
> everyone else including the right to have their relationships as  
> recognized and respected.

Well said.

I'm sorry if I seem a little harsh on this issue, but I never heard of 
anything so slam-dunk as the case for gay marriage.  I'm serious.  You can 
argue about Cydonian faces on Mars or whatever that was about, and at least 
I'll credit you with being a seeker after truth though stupid.  But if I see 
that you oppose gay marriage, then I assume you're a knuckle-dragging moral 
Neanderthal who would happily set black families on fire if you'd grown up in 
a culture where that was accepted wisdom.  I remember when Georgia passed a 
constitutional amendment against gay marriage and I said to myself:  "What the 
hell is this, the Middle Ages?"  That's when I started thinking that it was 
time to move out of Georgia and find somewhere I wouldn't be embarassed to 
call home.

Yes, opposing gay marriage is bigotry, just as bigoted as opposing marriage 
licenses for interracial couples.  And may I note that the argument form is 
exactly the same between the two cases, "unnatural", "eyes of God", "community 
standards", etc.  Two people love each other, get the frick out of their way.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence