Dave Skinner allies himself with dubious reasons as to why gay marriage should not be legal (May 23 Beacon: “Out of the Closet”). Many opponents of emancipation and women’s suffrage also claimed that their opposition was not based on any racism or sexism or on wishing to disenfranchise those people, but rather on “reason” such as economics (the South’s economy needed slaves, and women would vote irrationally), divine authority (the Bible says slavery is OK and women should be subservient to men), social order (chaos will reign!), natural law (human cultures have always had slaves and blacks/women are biologically inferior) and even humanitarianism (blacks are better off under slavery and women will be debased by being involved in political decisions).
The same kinds of baseless “reasonable” arguments are used by very nice gay marriage opponents who don’t want to see the ugly truth: They are trying to rationalize discrimination and homophobia in a modern age. I’m sure Mr. Skinner is honest when he states that he thinks he has no animosity toward gays, but that’s because as the decent human he is he would probably be ashamed to see what his views actually sound like: as inhumane and antiquated as the by-gone opponents of emancipation and women’s suffrage.
Stephanie Milner
Kalispell