Gay Marriage: to love or not to love

We are living in a historic moment which has the potential to legalize gay “marriage” in America. I don’t know what’s going to happen, and am extremely apprehensive about this. Why? Well, legalizing gay “marriage” is something I don’t want to happen. And it’s not because I hate gay people (I don’t), or because I want to prevent them from being happy (I don’t). It’s because I want to protect the holy institution of marriage.

This can be a difficult issue to talk about with people who don’t agree with me, because there are many misunderstandings as to what Catholics believe. I found it interesting that even at my Catholic school, there are many, many people here who do have a basic understanding of what the Catholic Church teaches about this. I was even more sad to see friends and family (some of whom claim to be Catholic) showing their support for gay “marriage” on Facebook today.

Here are some of the most common objections I’ve heard:

Gay parents can raise a child just as well as a straight couple. Kids are better off being raised by gay people than in an orphanage!

You know what? Yes. A child can be raised by anyone. However, a child deserves to know both his mother and father. This whole argument is not about kids anyway. It’s about the institution of marriage.

Gay “marriage” isn’t really that big of a deal, and Catholics should just follow along with society by supporting it. There’s no need to go against society and make things difficult.

Actually, the Catholic Church has taken a clear stance against gay “marriage”. As Catholics, there are 5 non-negotiable issues the Church recognizes as morally wrong. They are: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, and homosexual “marriage”. As Catholics, these are 5 immoral practices we are compelled and required by our Church to denounce in all circumstances. They are not something we get to choose whether to support or not. God spelled them out for us in the Bible already.

I support the right of people to love whoever they want to love.

Okay. If you want to support marriage “equality” then I’m going to go ahead and assume you’re fighting for all marriage equality right? That includes “marriage” to family members, to animals, to a rock, polygamy, and heck, why not marry your cat?!?!

If this is just about being equal, then where do we draw the line? Will we stop at animals? If we do, we’re clearly denying people (and animals, GASP – doesn’t that count as animal cruelty?) the right to marry who they want. Do we stop at inanimate objects? I mean, what if a guy brought a case to court trying to prove his hairbrush wanted to marry him? A line has to be drawn somewhere.

The point is, gay “marriage” is not about Catholics, kids, or equality. It’s about a holy institution; a union of a man and woman that is simply impossible between two people of the same gender. As a Catholic, I don’t oppose gay “marriage” because I’m a bigot. I oppose it because I have the duty to uphold the commonsense dignity of the human family.