Will acceptance make gay activists more conventional?
By Phil Lawler (bio - articles ) | August 08, 2003 9:50 AM
In an interesting Wall Street Journal op-ed (available for now only to WSJ subscribers, unfortunately), Melik Kaylan questions the argument put forward most notably by Andrew Sullivan: that public acceptance of same-sex "marriage" will help homosexuals to curb their promiscuity and became solid citizens like everyone else. Kalyan observes: "Surprisingly, considering that it comes from the political right, the argument is a pure piece of social engineering advocacy, a species of affirmative action as applied to sexual preference."
Good point. Where is the evidence that public acceptance of a particular form of behavior will cause a decrease in the more extreme forms of the same behavior?
Sullivan-- who is a thoughtful conservative on most issues other than homosexuality-- is making the argument that a change in the laws would produce a change in human behavior. Ordinarily, such claims are rightly recognized as the products of utopian liberalism.
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Posted by: shrink -
Aug. 08, 2003 4:56 PM ET USA
Phil, to your question. There is no evidence, and here's why: Cultural institutions (eg, marriage) do not create virtues, such as sexual temperance. Rather they are the result of habits in upbringing, which prepare the person for the demands of the institution. Without training, the institution collapses. So, marriage doesn't create temperance, it reinforces that which is already there, learned through childhood and adolescence.
