How Does Gay Marriage Threaten the Nuclear Family?
June 4, 2021
The LDS Church recently published a piece by Elder Tad R. Callister entitled “A fence at the top or an ambulance at the bottom?” Though there is much that might raise the eyebrows of anyone not on the political far right, I feel a necessity to focus on just one statement. Elder Callister says it is the plan of Satan to destroy the nuclear family and that Satan disguises his plan with such labels as “’love and compassion’ for endorsement of same-sex marriage…”
This is an old claim by the religious and political Right. But will someone please explain EXACTLY how lesbian and gay relationships destroy the nuclear family. SPECIFICALLY, what are the mechanisms by which gay and lesbian marriages bring ruin to heterosexual relationships? What do married lesbian and gay people DO that destroys the straight marriages around them? Or does the mere existence of gays and lesbians dilute the supremacy and exclusivity of straight culture to a degree that straight families simply fall apart? What are the DETAILS of how this happens? And where is the proof of these claims?
And perhaps someone could also explain to me what gay and lesbian people should DO with themselves INSTEAD of marrying? What life course should they take to keep straight families safe? Should they simply refrain from marriage? Would that be enough to protect the straight families of the world? And how exactly DOES their non-marriage protect their neighbor’s marriage? Or do they need to avoid relationships altogether? Is there some magic in their celibacy and loneliness that benefits the parents and children in their vicinity? What is that magic and how does it work? Or, is it perhaps necessary for gays and lesbians to disappear completely so that only straight relationships exist. Is that what it takes for nuclear families to thrive? And again, please explain exactly HOW this works?
How far does the repression of lesbian and gay people have to go in order for the heterosexist Far Right to be satisfied? And are YOU, dear Right-leaning reader, truly comfortable inflicting that degree of repression?