This was another long-form interview (for the Daily Show, anyway) where Stewart gets a chance to dig deeper into an issue with his guest. This time, Mike Huckabee’s feet were held to the fire as Stewart doggedly tried to get him to explain his reasoning against gay marriage.
There are a couple of points, however, that Jon failed to make. I don’t really fault him for this, he only has a few minutes. The argument that gays are trying to “redefine” marriage is only superficially true. Actually, we’re making it more basic than religious groups: marriage is between two people. The slippery slope that would allow polygamy, man-goat weddings, and pedophilia is absurd, and unsustainable as argument. Only adult humans have the right to freely enter into contracts with each other, so forget about anything involving animals and children. Polygamy? I’m not shutting the door on that concept forever. We’ve redefined the concept of marriage to disallow it in modern society, so maybe we’ll want to introduce it again, someday. What is right out is the idea that any human is another’s property. Goodbye to that, and good riddance. We shouldn’t be afraid of fearful claims that we’re redefining marriage. We’ve redefined it with regularity over centuries.
Why are there any legal protections and benefits for marriage at all? Because we think that society benefits in turn from sanctioning its bonded couples. Society benefits from stable relationships, as even the most rabid anti-gay-marriage advocates will agree. But no one has any evidence whatsoever (and there is good evidence to the contrary) that gay marriage will weaken straight marriages. The opposite is true: gay subculture will benefit from married couples in its midst, and society will benefit from supporting gay marriages.
I’m tired of hearing the other side say they think gay couples should have the same rights, just not be able to use the word “marriage.” Aren’t we just arguing semantics, here? Aren’t we back to the idea of separate but equal? The reason it doesn’t work is that it’s an oxymoron. Separation leads to inequality.
One more thing—saying, “gays have the same rights we do: to marry a person of the opposite sex.” That works the other way, too: straights will have the same right to marry a person of the same sex. No special rights for anyone, just simple equality, QED.
