Friday, July 22, 2005

Further Thoughts on Marriage

Lee Harris writes on the WSJ OpinionJournal page today an essay that says what I was trying to here.

This paragraph makes the point I was striving for:

If gay men and women want to create their own shining examples, they must do this themselves, by their own actions and by their own imagination. They must construct for themselves, out of their own unique perspective on the world, an ethos that can be admired both by future gay men and women and perhaps, eventually, by the rest of society. But there can be no advantage to them if they insist on trying to co-opt the shining example of an ethical tradition that they themselves have abandoned in order to find their own way in the world. It will end only in self-delusion and bitter disappointment

Basically, pursuing marriage (an institution dedicated to the bearing and raising of children) by a couple who has no chance, is an exercise in frustration.

While I could care less one way or another whether couples who cannot or will not have children enjoy the spousal advantages currently bestowed only on married couples, whether they be of the same sex or not; I am quite committed to the idea that our society remain committed to children raised by "parents who [are] so unshakably committed to the values of decency, and honesty, and integrity, and all those other homespun and corny principles", and continue to offer societal and governmental incentives to them.