Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 78

74 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.