Isn't He Brave For Standing Up For His Own Gain?

Activist Boris O. Dittrich, the first openly homosexual member of the Netherlands parliament, wrote a piece in the Los Angeles Times to pat himself on the back for neutering marriage ten years ago.

The Netherlands had introduced gay civil unions in 1998; I regarded them as a step forward but still insufficient. Why should heterosexuals be able to fence off a part of civil law - marriage - and defend it as exclusively theirs?

This, of course, is a red herring. Many homosexual people have participated in marriage under the bride+groom requirement. I personally know people like this, including people who continue to remain married.

This "separate but equal" status reminded me of apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow in the United States.

Same-sex pairings are inherently unequal to a pairing of both sexes. Is Dittrich really arguing that homosexual people in the Netherlands were treated anywhere near the way people were treated under apartheid and Jim Crow? People who beat homosexual people in the USA end up in prison. There was a time when people walked free after lynching someone based on the color of their skin.

When two people decide to share their responsibilities and commit themselves to each other by entering civil marriage, their sexual orientation shouldn't matter to the government.

You’re right. It shouldn't, and it doesn't. However, that sexual orientation matters is precisely the claim of the marriage neutering advocates. The government's greatest interest is in the uniting of a bride and groom, and the government should not care about sexual orientation; only the inclusion of both sexes.

Civilization as we know it did not end.

Civilization hasn’t ended in the dozens of states that have passed marriage amendments. But as for the effect of marriage neutering, this sort of thing takes time to get the full effect. No-fault divorce took a while to have a larger effect, too.

And, as far as I can tell, God did not punish the Netherlands.

God's a patient being, if you’re referring to the God described in the Bible. I think the Netherlands already had ample evidence that God is patient.

On the contrary, the bill paved the way for nine more countries (Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Argentina, Portugal and Iceland), one city (Mexico City), the District of Columbia in the U.S., and several U.S. states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa, New Hampshire and, briefly, California) to allow gays to marry. In Slovenia, Nepal and Australia, same-sex marriage is now on the political agenda.

Notice that this is a small minority of countries and states.

He goes on to cite murder, trying to make a connection between the murder of homosexual people to defending marriage. Then, he cites Loving vs. Virginia. Nothing about Reynolds vs. the United States, however.

Nothing new, just another appeal-to-emotion piece in the Los Angeles Times.