Reason #282: The Pursuit of Happiness

However tempting, I don't want to comment directly on the issue of the week. The two gay-marriage cases being considered by the Supreme Court at the moment could prove to be a huge deal once they're decided, but really, that's still a ways off--and in the meantime, there's no shortage of existing posts on this blog on the subject; I'll add a few highlights under "Further Reading" below.

The one thing I haven't really gotten into when it comes to gay rights, because it's more of a personal feeling and harder to tie into my "taxpayer" shtick, is that I really don't care about most of the arguments we're having on the subject.

I don't mean that I don't care in the sense that I don't support gay rights, I mean that I'm opposed to the nature of the conversation.

I'll back up: say scientists held a press conference tomorrow to announce that they had proven, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that homosexuality had no genetic component whatsoever. That being gay really was a choice, and no one was just born that way. Why would that matter at all? 

Returning to my earlier comments about looking at the bigger picture--which is shaping up to be the theme of this month, apparently--the gay "conversation" shouldn't be about science. It shouldn't even be about whether gay parents produce healthy children, because it's not as if heterosexual parents have some awesome track record to point to. The absolute ground level of this conversation is, do we have the right to stop people from loving who they want--not even need, just want--to love? From choosing who makes up their own household, who they want to visit them in the hospital, who gets their stuff when they die?

Any other argument, by its mere existence, implies that there's an empirical answer out there that would outweigh that core philosophical issue. Do we, as a country, allow people to have families because of research that shows families are good for society? Or do we do it to facilitate the pursuit of happiness?

Last I checked, the Declaration of Independence doesn't say shit about research.


Further Reading

The Onion - Supreme Court On Gay Marriage: 'Sure, Who Cares'

Reason #10: Self-Identifying Gay Couples

Reason #101: Half-Measures

Reason #124: Lucky Number Seven

Reason #127: Semantics

Reason #204: Race to the Finish