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<td width="343" valign="bottom"><p class="date"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="date" --><a href="default.html">3/29/04 • Vol.
128, No. 28</a><!-- InstanceEndEditable --></p></td>
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<p><a href="gaymarriage.jsp">Arguments against gay marriage flimsy</a></p>
<p><a href="whale.jsp">Honor culture and let them eat whale</a></p>
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<h1><font size="5">Arguments against gay marriage flimsy</font></h1>
<p class="byline"> </p>
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<td><p><a href="Gaymarriages.jpg"><img src="Gaymarriages.jpg" alt="" name="Photo" width="216" height="341" border="0" style=""></a></p>
<p align="justify" class="byline">-Art by John Rios</p>
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<p class="byline">By Josh Geist & Jose Garza</p>
<p class="storyText">We don’t hate too much. It’s not in our
nature. But sometimes we can’t help it. Hatred and oppression we
admit to hating. </p>
<p class="storyText"> We abhor the prospect of voters—the majority of whom are straight,
and a significant percentage of whom are homophobic—getting to
decide whether or not gay folks get their civil liberties. </p>
<p class="storyText"> And yet, here we are with a constitutional amendment
on the table to make sure they don’t. Some of the arguments against gay marriage
are misguided, some don’t apply and some are downright wrong. And
all of them are built on trying to take away the right of American citizens
to choose how to live.</p>
<p class="storyText"> First off, the current system is the pinnacle of
unconstitutionality. Even if marriage is a privilege, instead of a right—which it isn’t—the
14th Amendment specifically states, “No State shall make or enforce
any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens.” There
is absolutely no way to say that straight folks can marry and gay folks
can't without seriously abridging privileges. </p>
<p class="storyText"> The U.S. Special Counsel’s removing job protections from gay federal
employees, though, is just downright infringement on rights.</p>
<p class="storyText"> Then there’s the religious argument. A purely religious ideal can’t
be used to justify an amendment banning something that has no effect
on anyone else, and really is no one else’s business. Perhaps the
most important thing that people opposed to gay marriage need to realize
is the profound difference between faith—which is personal—and
fact—which is absolute. Policy and law can only be based on facts
that can be verified by evidence. </p>
<p class="storyText"> Faith, by St. Paul’s definition, is “believing in things
unseen,” without tangible evidence. Since there can be no factual
or evidentiary judgment as to whether homosexuality is wrong, we can't
make a law against it, because faith can't be a basis for law. Leaps
of faith can be a wonderful thing. But they are leaps—leaps we
cannot ask others to involuntarily take.</p>
<p class="storyText"> Here's an example—there are many Christians who believe that other
religions, or the atheists’ lack of religion are “wrong.” For
some reason, though, even the most extreme among the Christian right
never tries to eliminate freedom of religion. Just because one sector
of our population believes a thing to be wrong—especially for religious
reasons—isn't sufficient reason to make it illegal, no matter how
large that sector is. That's why we have things like the 14th Amendment—to
defend against the tyranny of the majority. We can use what we believe
to govern ourselves—not to govern others. </p>
<p class="storyText"> And then there's the biological argument of it being
unnatural. “The
Homosexual Matrix” by Dr. Carl A. Tripp outlines documented occurrences
of homosexuality in primates, rats and dogs as well as humans.</p>
<p class="storyText"> The notion that gays are spreading disease is nowhere
near being the leading cause of AIDS and other diseases. Unprotected
sex in general
and lack of education is the largest culprit. Unless someone wants
to make the argument that half of Uganda's population has AIDS because
Uganda
is a great flaming gay nation, this argument is pretty well out of commission. </p>
<p class="storyText"> It’s really quite simple—there is nothing factual to justify
a law banning gay marriage. To support a banning of gay marriage and
to claim to believe in the constitution is the height of hypocrisy, and
an affront to the American ideal.</p>
<p class="storyText"> —
These columnists may be reached at collegian@csufresno.edu\</p>
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