Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 78
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Popular Culture Review
Spouses rightly deserve specific and categorical legal recognition by
the state . . . while any attempt to equate marriage with other forms of
cohabitation violates its unique role in God’s plan for humanity.
— Pope John Paul II to New Zealand Bishops, September 2004
“Marriage equality” is somewhat easier to define. Same-sex couples want the civil right
to enter into the state-sanctioned civil union called “marriage.” There is no threat to
“traditional marriage.”
Like “marriage,” the meaning of “family” becomes confused when “traditional” is the
operative adjective. But again I’ll defer to the Christian Right’s definition. “Traditional
families” are produced by “traditional marriage”: first-time husbands and wives and their
biological children all living together under the same roof. Single-parent households and
divorced parents remarrying with stepchildren are not “traditional families” even though
they may have begun with a “traditional marriage” and are every bit as viable, loving,
and nurturing as “traditional families.” They are also extremely common in America
today. The “families” o f same-sex parents are not “traditional” either, even thought hey
are as viable and loving and nurturing as “traditional families” and their nontraditional
heterosexual counterparts. The major difference is that they do not have the legal
recognition traditional or more conventional nontraditional families do.
In contrast, “family equality” is easy to define. Same-sex parents seek the legal
recognition and socioeconomic benefits and stability that recognition would bring to their
children and their families. Once again, there is no threat to “traditional families.”
2 Uganda now leads the way in the "final solution" to the gay problem. From
365Gay.com, November 30, 2004:
(Kampala) The government of Uganda has issued a warning to the
UN joint program on HIV/AIDS that it risks being thrown out of the
country if it offers AIDS education to gays.
Homosexuality is illegal in the country and [Information Minister
James Nsaba] Buturo said that contacts with gays in which UNAIDS
gave sexual advice would be a crime.
The government has recently called on police to crack down on
homosexual activity.
3
4
For specific statistics, see “State o f Our Unions” at http://marriage.rutgers.edu.
The complete transcript o f Sen. Santorum’s AP interview is available at
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/04/22/nationall737EDT
0668.DTL.
Works Cited
Bell, A.P. and M.S., Weinberg. Homosexualities: A Study o f Diversity Among Men and
Women. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978.