Posner's Stance On Gay Marriage

Recently Judge Richard Posner was among a panel of three judges to rule that the bans on same sex marriage in Indiana and Wisconsin were unconstitutional. He presented oral and written arguments that were blunt, brutally honest, and non wishy-washy, which was refreshing regardless of what side of the issue you fall on. Judge Posner can be considered a prolific genius by any standard. He  graduated as valedictorian of his class from Harvard Law School in 1962 and has knowledge on an unimaginably wide breadth of civics minded topics. It's virtually impossible to find an article that disagrees with his most recent ruling on gay marriage, and perhaps because it's because his opinions are pieced together brilliantly. As much as I agree with his "big picture" ruling of Wisconsin and Indiana's ban on same sex marriage being unconstitutional, when it gets down the his reasoning behind this ruling, I couldn't disagree more. 

Posner forcibly asserted his opinions in a way that made one ashamed to believe anything contrary. He, along with two other judges, were perplexed when the states of Indiana and Wisconsin banned same sex marriage. Although I will definitely admit there are holes in the arguments of both states, I am swayed to believe that Posner (or perhaps that author of this article) purposely selected information and twisted it to fit what he was trying to say. For example, the article said "Both states admit that children benefit psychologically and economically from having married parents. These facts would seem to suggest a compelling interest in support of gay marriage, since banning it actively, demonstrably harms children." Wow. Can we talk about words getting twisted? What state isn't going to agree that a married home is more beneficial to a child than that of an unmarried or single parent home? In no way were those statements originally meant to correlate to gay marriage. Additionally, one of Judge Richard Posner's key points in his ruling was, "Heterosexuals get drunk and pregnant, producing unwanted children; their reward is to be allowed to marry. Homosexual couples do not produce unwanted children; their reward is to be dinned the right to marry. Go figure." As someone who has the intention to marry a man and have children, I find great offense in this. Posner is implying that gay couples would be more responsible and better suited parents than straight couples. I interpret this as degrading and demeaning. While trying to defend homosexuals, Posner began discriminating towards heterosexuals. The fact of the matter is that there are straight people who will be bad parents and gay people who will be bad parents. Just as there are gay people that are great parents and straight people that are great parents. Instead of discriminating towards and judging a whole group, one should take a look at the individual. Posner's argument, although well spoken and strongly worded, was fundamentally twisted. 

On a governmental front, I agree with Posner that same sex marriage should be legal. In order to for our government to be constitutionally sound, our nation must support equality on all fronts. Just as we have freedom of religion, freedom or speech, freedom of press, and so on, Americans should have the freedom to make a choice of who they marry and to be recognized as legitimate. Whether it is due race, gender, social standing, or sexual preference, the US cannot support the exclusion and discrimination against a particular group. On a moral front, I believe that being gay is wrong. The Bible teaches that being gay is a sin and that marriage between a man and a woman is a sacred covenant created by God. Quite honestly however, I don't think that making gay marriage legal will corrupt what has already been corrupted by the millions of straight couples that have lied, cheated, and dishonored God through their marriages. As sad as it is, today most marriages aren't what God intended when He created them. Instead of hyper-focussing on fighting something that will undoubtedly be legalized across the nation within the next few years, shouldn't we as Christians be working to further the kingdom of God by loving others and showing them what marriage as He truly intended is? 


Sources: U Chicago // Slate