How to be in favour of same-sex marriage, while being against marriages in general?
That’s the question I’ve been asking myself since the (almost simultaneous) beginning of the debate about legalizing ‘marriage for everyone’ (in France) and ‘same-sex marriage’ (in the UK). This new law would finally end a despicable discrimination in the countries on both sides of the Channel (or La Manche, pardon my French).
That’s the question I’ve been asking myself since the (almost simultaneous) beginning of the debate about legalizing ‘marriage for everyone’ (in France) and ‘same-sex marriage’ (in the UK). This new law would finally end a despicable discrimination in the countries on both sides of the Channel (or La Manche, pardon my French).
To get married is without a doubt one of the least romantic acts you can commit in a human life. If lovers really need a legal contract to prove they love each other, I pity their future. By all standards, marriage is a very hypocritical act. Given the fact that half of all marriages end in divorce in France, whenever a couple says ‘yes’ in front of a civil servant, statistically at least one the two is lying. Usually, the only real reasons to marry are either tax reasons, social pressure or simply because people are afraid of ending up alone. If it were up to me, this misleading institution would be abolished tomorrow.
Yet, despite my profound opposition to marriage in general, I do know how to be pragmatic. And I notice that not everyone has the same access to certain civil rights. Strangely enough, France, the country with the word égalité, ‘equality’, in its national advertising slogan, makes a distinction between its citizens solely based on their sexual preference. This is a form of discrimination that is otherwise prohibited by the Constitution. One could therefore argue that not allowing same-sex couples to get married is unconstitutional.
And it is precisely to end this inequality that I am in favour of same-sex marriage. Of course I regret that, by wishing to access the bourgeois institution of marriage, homosexuals are ready to say farewell to their last bit of avant-gardism. But I think that ultimately everyone should have the same right to make huge mistakes in his life. Any other arguments, in favour or against, are beside the point.
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