Thursday, July 15, 2004

Box turtles?

Senator John Cornyn of Texas on gay marriage, in a speech to the Heritage Foundation:
"It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right. . . . Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife."

[Note: Cornyn's office says that this remark appeared in the written text of the speech but wasn't included in the speech as delivered.]

Golly, what is this thing some people have about animals? It's a persistent theme in the rhetoric of gay-marriage opponents, and it's just a teeny bit unnerving. And of course, there's a fallacy inherent in comparing relationships between legal persons and relationships between a legal person and something else.

At least Cornyn isn't quite claiming that gay marriage necessarily leads to box-turtle marriage.

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