conservatives and same-sex marriage

The rights of same-sex couples in the western world has been marked with recent events in the UK and France. Within two days of each other both governments in London and Paris voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill allowing the marriage of same-sex couples - the 5th and the 2nd of February respectively. Despite this similarity, the public reactions in the two neighboring countries has been drastically different. In London, on the eve of the vote, there was very little public voice in response to the bill. In Paris however, hundreds of thousands of people, spurred on by by the conservative voices within the country, converged on the city in opposition to the new bill. The discrepancy between these two countries reflects a fundamental difference in conservative attitudes toward homosexuals. 

Conservative parties have traditionally had a turbulent relationship with homosexual rights - gay rights has traditionally been seen as a tenant of more liberally minded parties. Nicolas Dhuicq - a member of the French conservative opposition UMP - announced late last year that not only are homosexual parents incapable of teaching their child “what is right or wrong,” but that the children which they bring up are more prone to becoming terrorists. Although such slander thankfully does not reflect the consensus of the UMP, it does show the perceived incompatibility between conservatism and gay rights. 

Gay marriage does, however, fit into the greater conservative ideology of social cohesion and stability - with the family as the bed-rock of a functioning society. The government which passed same-sex marriage in the UK was in fact a conservative one and moreover David Cameron announced that he supported same-sex marriage “because he was a conservative.” The gap which nevertheless exists in the conservative ideology is the insistence that the family with homosexual parents is fundamentally different from the family with heterosexual parents. The reality, however, is that a child born to heterosexual parents has just as much of a chance in becoming a terrorist as a child with homosexuals parents. The value which conservatives find in the traditional family can easily be translated into an equal same value for the non-traditional family. Such an attitude is something which can and should be adopted by France and the United States.

The debate over same-sex marriage has become trivial. The rights afforded to you - as a human being - are not dictated by the person you love. Marriage is not necessarily a religious ceremony, but it is necessarily a civil one - and it affords married couples the civil necessities of a typical relationship. Rather than meager opinions shouted across the political chambers of western countries, such statements are slowly becoming accepted truths. As both sides of the political spectrum priorities the rights of citizens, this debate can no longer be aligned to a single political ideology. Gay rights is both a liberal and conservative pursuit. 

A version of this article appeared on the Opinion Page of Washington Square News, Feb. 14 2013.