2004-02-15 Homosexual Marriage and Civilization

• when: 2004-02-15
• author: Orson Scott Card
• source: The Ornery American
• topics: arguments against gay marriage
• link: https://web.archive.org/web/20210928134807/http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2004-02-15-1.html
  • The original URL seems to have been taken down or moved sometime between 2021-09-28 and 2021-11-11.
• title: Homosexual "Marriage" and Civilization
• summary: “...anyone who has any understanding of how America – or any civilization – works... will realize that this new diktat of the courts [in support of gay marriage] will not have any of the intended effects, while the unintended effects are likely to be devastating.”

Excerpt

Regardless of their opinion of homosexual "marriage," every American who believes in democracy should be outraged that any court should take it upon itself to dictate such a social innovation without recourse to democratic process.

And we all know the course this thing will follow. Anyone who opposes this edict will be branded a bigot; any schoolchild who questions the legitimacy of homosexual marriage will be expelled for "hate speech." The fanatical Left will insist that anyone who upholds the fundamental meaning that marriage has always had, everywhere, until this generation, is a "homophobe" and therefore mentally ill.

Which is the modern Jacobin equivalent of crying, "Off with their heads!"

We will once again be performing a potentially devastating social experiment on ourselves without any attempt to predict the consequences and find out if the American people actually want them.

But anyone who has any understanding of how America – or any civilization – works, of the forces already at play, will realize that this new diktat of the courts will not have any of the intended effects, while the unintended effects are likely to be devastating.

This is the original and now-infamous OSC rant against gay marriage, but not the last.

Subpages

• /analysis

Commentary

• 2005-04-02
  • comments by webcomic artist Aeire (archive.org, archive.ph)
    • forum posting attempting to explain and reconcile Card's position with those of Aeire and others. Starts with a post by a practicing Mormon who explains the Mormon views on sex and gender. Gets sidetracked on condemning Clinton as being worse than Nixon... long post, with many responses.
      • (original URL: http://forums.keenspot.com/viewtopic.php?t=75430 - no copies on archive.org)
  • Oy. (On Card and misinterpretations) by Aeire, continuing the dialog