Gay Marriage Has Nothing to do with Equality

The most common argument from gay marriage supporters is that they are fighting for “marriage equality” and “equal rights” for gays and lesbians. This is a very typical approach from the Left: framing an argument in terms of social justice and cloaking themselves in Civil Rights-era rhetoric. They are so high-minded as to say that supporters of gay marriage are on “the right side of history.”

Unfortunately, their arrogance and belief in their own superiority is quite revealing of their ignorance. In reality, the gay marriage argument has absolutely nothing to do with equality. As a refresher, equality is about ensuring we do not treat one group of individuals differently than another group based on some arbitrary feature, such as race or gender or sexual orientation.

Different Rules
For example, when black people were forced to use separate bathrooms, separate drinking fountains, and separate lunch counters than white people, this was clear discrimination and clear unequal treatment. To ask someone of a different race to attend a different school than white students, or to force black customers to sit at the back of the bus, demonstrates clear inequality. One group (blacks) is required to do something different than another (whites) based solely on skin color.

In another example, women were demonstrably treated unequally when they were forbidden by law from voting. Men had the right and responsibility to vote, while women were forbidden from casting a ballot. By basing the right to vote solely on gender, our government had made a decision to treat one group of individuals (women) different than another (men).

The average gay marriage supporter will respond that this is exactly the situation we have in the U.S. today: heterosexuals can marry whomever they choose, while homosexuals may not. When framed this way, it certainly appears that equality for homosexuals is the issue, but it is an improper framing of the argument. The real question is whether homosexuals and heterosexuals have to follow the same rules, or if they are subject to different rules.

Same Rules
Consider a homosexual man who wants to marry another man. Under current law, the two men are forbidden from marrying. Yet, a heterosexual man is also forbidden from marrying another man. Consider also, the heterosexual man is free to marry any woman he chooses, as is any homosexual man. The fact that the homosexual man doesn’t want to marry a woman or a heterosexual man doesn’t want to marry a man is irrelevant. A woman may not want to vote, but we recognize her rights and apply the same rules to men and women. In terms of equal treatment under the law, it should be clear that homosexuals and heterosexuals are being treated exactly the same way.

Some will accuse me of avoiding the issue, but what I am trying to do is clarify the issue. Gay marriage has never been an issue of equality because the traditional definition of marriage applies equally to both heterosexuals and homosexuals. The real issue is the disparate impact that homosexuals suffer under laws upholding the traditional definition of marriage. (I have covered the very real issue of disparate impact elsewhere, so I won’t repeat it here.)

I am personally a supporter of gay marriage, but not under the false argument of equality. It’s clear to me that homosexuals suffer unnecessarily by not being able to marry whom they love, and the only justification is that this is how it’s always been done. We should allow gays to marry, but we should not fool ourselves into believing we are righting some form of inequality when we do it.