I feel somewhat like Mormon, when he says that he can’t
write even a 100th part of the things that are written. There really
is so much that I have learned this past week that I could babble on for hours
but I will spare you the details and try to share the key points that would be
meaningful and worthwhile for you!
I want to start first of all talking about what I learned
last Friday. The topic of the class was about the Supreme Court cases that were
held this past year. The first was about Proposition 8. For those who do not
know what that is, it simply states the following, “Only marriage between a man
and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” Despite the fact that this
proposition had been passed not once by Californians, but TWICE, the Supreme
Court decided to hear the case. It was a gay couple versus some organizations
that were in favor of Prop 8. Well, the cases were presented and the Supreme
Court Justices basically all agreed that the most important factor in approving
homosexual relationships would be to determine the affects the relationship
would have on the children. Their main
source of evidence/research content was an official brief published by the
American Psychological Association (APA) in 2005 that claimed, “Not a single
study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any
significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents.” Quite a
lofty claim. How many of you agree with that statement? How many of you
disagree? The Supreme Court’s decision was that the matter was a state issue
and that it was the governor’s choice to enforce the law or not. Sadly enough,
Governor Brown, is choosing not to enforce this law.
In response to the APA brief, a man named Loren Marks, Ph.D.
CFLE (Certified Family Life Educator), wrote his analysis of the brief
presented as proof that homosexual relationships are the same as heterosexual
relationships when it comes to raising children. In our class we were required
to read his lengthy, yet well informing, article entitled “Same-sex parenting and children’s outcomes: A closer examination of the
American psychological association’s brief on lesbian and gay parenting.”
Marks makes very valid points about the flaws in the research that was
conducted, on which the APA brief was based, including that (1) There was only
one man conducting the study and his research appears not to have been peer
reviewed, (2) Most of the homosexual relationships were being compared to
families comprising mostly of single-parent (mostly single-white women) homes and
(3) Many of the research didn't even study the effects on children. Now I’m not
saying the Supreme Court justices are uneducated but isn't it important to
first not only look at the research but how it was collected but what exactly
the data is saying/suggesting, instead of taking one professional’s word for
it? Since when do scientists take someone’s word for it? No! You need multiple
experiments with the same results before you can make that official of a claim…
Are you bored yet? :D I’m just getting started!
The second case that was presented to the Supreme Court was
about the Defense of Marriage Act or DOMA, which basically states that the US
government will only consider marriage to be between a man and a woman and that
the government will protect marriage between a man and a woman (To view the official
document click here).
And since it is an official documented act, it is the responsibility of the
President to be the CEO and make sure that the laws of the land are being
carried out. Well, can you guess what happened? Obama, didn't want to defend
that statement. How can you just say no to the law? You were sworn in as
president of the United States and swore to protect the people and respect
their voices. Hence we are called a DEMOCRACY! Gay and lesbians make up 0.6% of
the population yet their voice gets heard over the rest of the 68% of traditional
(ma and pa) households (US Census Bureau, 2010). Is there something wrong with
this picture?
You can bet I was pretty fired up about politics after that
class…
The question now becomes, “Where do I stand?” and “Will I act and defend what I believe? Or
will I sit around, waiting to be acted upon?” The choice is yours.
Here's my feelings. They're not very popular in the LDS community. To begin, I think it's generally accepted that being gay is not a choice, although acting on those feelings is, etc. Also, I don't want to start an argument at all, and I definitely don't have the studies to back me up, but thought I'd share some thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI think that in our society, marriage is mostly a civil concept, and it's totally reasonable that gay couples want and should be given the civil privileges awarded to the rest of us--tax status, sharing insurance benefits, next of kin status when making end of life decisions, etc. It's simply absurd to say that just because I (we) don't approve of your lifestyle, your life partner can't be your next of kin (as a straight person's spouse automatically becomes) without jumping through a lot of expensive legal hoops. Religious marriage is a different story. A lot of countries separate the two completely. For instance, my cousin and his wife were required by law to be married civilly, before they could be married/sealed in the temple, because they were married in Poland, which doesn't recognize any religious ceremony as a legal marriage. Because it's the law, as in countries with similar laws, the waiting period before being sealed was waived, and they went to Germany the next day and were sealed. The US could easily implement a system like that, and I think the debate would be simplified a lot.
There's a lot of talk that if gay marriage is allowed in general, the LDS church will be required to perform such marriages. This isn't probable. The separation of church and state prevents it. In a serious long shot, someone could sue the church and the courts would decide that they would, but the church is a private, religious institution, and precedence shows that the courts tend to allow religious institutions to practice their beliefs as long as they aren't harming people. For instance, black men weren't allowed the priesthood till over a decade after segregation was legally abolished, and no court ever mandated that they had to be allowed to.
Also, as far as Obama refusing to support DOMA, he's a person too, and I'm sure that it took some serious soul searching for him to make the decision that it violated his morals, and since he was elected by a majority (even though it was a small majority in the popular vote). Personally, while I agree that based on my understanding, that might have been the wrong choice, I think it's admirable that he stuck to his moral guide. As a counterpoint, imagine if Romney had won the presidency, and Congress had passed the anti-DOMA, and Romney declared that he couldn't support it because it violated his morals. Would you be outraged by that? And yet, it's the same thing.
I think it's also important to remember that all the people on the other side of the issue are people too. I think sometimes we forget that. We vilify the other so often, and turn them into this anonymous "THEM" that we forget they're individuals, with people they love and morals and really aren't that different than us. How can we say that because the person you love is of a different gender than the person I love, you don't deserve the privileges of marriage, along with the And isn't it better for a child to have parents who love them and take care of them than no parents or negligent parents?
Anyway. Feel free to delete my comment or totally ignore it. Like I said, I don't want to start an argument, but I find it really easy to see the other side on most issues which has the dual result of making me a poor debater (since I can see the other side's position as logical too) and a bit more liberal than the average Mormon (since I can see the pain the other side feels too).
I don't know if this blog is still current, since it seems to be a requirement or something for a BYU-I class, and I am assuming that the class ended. But I feel like I have to respond, to this post (and maybe some others on this blog).
ReplyDeleteAs an active, believing Latter-day Saint, I believe that God created the institution of marriage to be between a man and a woman, in order to raise up families in stability and righteousness. As an active, believing Latter-day Saint, I know that *for me*, same-sex marriage is out of the question.
As a human, I believe that marriage is also a non-religious concept. A legal, societal concept. I have no problem with gay people getting married. In fact, I have gay friends and since they've been "married" in a commitment ceremony as many years as my husband and I have been married, I am certain that they will want to make their marriage legal.
I believe in equal rights: I believe that our US government should allow gays to marry. If a man and a woman can marry, why not gay adults?
I believe in strengthening the family: Marriage between gays will allow for greater stability in their relationships, similar to marriages between heterosexuals. Marriage between gays will allow for protection for partners and their children, similar to heterosexual marriages. I believe legal marriage would strengthen gay families.
I don't believe in myths: Gay marriage would not create more gay people. Legalizing gay marriage would not force religious institutions to perform gay marriages.
I believe that as a Latter-day Saint, I believe in the 11th Article of Faith, which allows for people to worship however they may. I believe that "worshipping" could also be seen as "living their life." I don't believe that I, as a Latter-day Saint, as a fellow human, get to dictate how someone else chooses to live their life.
I don't believe that legalizing gay marriage would harm heterosexual marriage. If my marriage between myself and my husband is damaged when my gay friends marry, then there is something seriously wrong with my marriage.
I believe in love: I have known gay adults who are in love, and seem joyful, ecstatic, twitterpated. As a fellow human, I am delighted that they have found their soulmate. As a Latter-day Saint, I must admit to a twinge of sadness, a feeling that I wished they could have found heterosexual love. But also as a Latter-day Saint, I know that God knows more than I do about these twitterpated gay friends, and only he can judge their love. All he asks me to do is love them.
Hi again,
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know--pretty sure no one is reading this, but I still feel the need to reply to what you wrote.
First, SCOTUS (the Supreme Court of the United States) exists, at least in part, to protect the rights of the minority. If a law is created by a majority (such as prop 8) that violates the rights of the minority, the Supreme court can override that law. Imagine if the evangelical Christians became the majority in a state and created a law that made temple marriages invalid. By your logic, if the majority votes for it, it should be okay. But that is not how the US works. In that instance, SCOTUS should rightfully intervene and protect the rights of the minority.
Then you write about Loren Marks. You should probably be aware that Marks was actually dropped as potential witness in the prop 8 trial after he admitted that his statements about same-sex parenting was not supported by evidence (see http://prop8.berkeleylawblogs.org/files/2010/12/2010-11-01-proponents_-reply-brief-_exhibit-b_.pdf).
In terms of scholarly articles, please see http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1992.tb01679.x/abstract
or http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J002v14n03_09#.UxYRIijcLF4
or
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9450.00302/abstract
or
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2657413?uid=3739792&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103489139071
Again, as I posted last night, I am not at all trying to be argumentative or contentious. I am just trying to point out the flaws in the statements made in your post--I want to reiterate that the flaws, I believe, are not *yours*, but the flaws belong to your class instructor, the textbook authors, and whoever else is teaching you this. I think if you want to truly be educated, as it seems that you do, a simple google search of some of the concepts that were taught to you could result in a wealth of new information.