Mark Tooley, writing in the latest American Spectator (August 15, 2006) notes that it is not just marriage that homosexual activists want, but the entire redefinition of family and relationships. He argues that the radical homosexual agenda includes not just taking over and dismantling marriage, but totally redefining the nature of what a family is.
Tooley is referring to a recent document put out by American homosexual activists entitled, “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision for All Our Families & Relationships” which was released in July. In it the demand for any and every type of relationship recognition is made.
The statement endorses “committed, loving households in which there is more than one conjugal partner,” among many other sexual alternatives. Tooley rightly notes that this effectively means the end of the family as we know it:
“According to this crowd, there is apparently no possible assortment of people who should not be recognized as ‘family’ and therefore entitled to a wide range of legal benefits. It is nice that they are concerned about elderly people and grandparents, but economic benefits for the alternative sexual relationships seems to be the chief emphasis of their advocacy.”
Indeed, it is a “sweeping agenda” as Tooley describes it. The worrying thing, says Tooley, is the number of religious figures who have put their name to the document. Of course they all come from radical leftist and theologically liberal denominations and churches, but it shows how far off the mark the PC church has become.
The “several hundred signatories include a predictable list of homosexual rights advocates, sexologists, self-professed pagans, and practitioners of polyamory, among other colorful categories.”
One can dismiss this as more radical activism. But it is a worry nonetheless: “‘Beyond Same Sex Marriage’ could be dismissed as marginal, if not silly. But in fact, its conglomeration of issues and interest groups is quite edgy and even clever. Throw in special benefits for one parent families and the elderly with legal recognition for multiple sexual partners. Align everyone who is not in a two-parent with children household as a coalition, from the spinster sisters living together to the pagan polyamores. This new coalition’s one unifying characteristic would seem to be resentment aimed at people in conventional marriages.”
Indeed, marriage and family have long been under attack. This coalition statement is just another attempt to drive the last few nails in the coffin of these valuable social institutions.
But not every one is willing to roll over and play dead. Tooley is not. Nor am I. Hopefully many of you as well will continue to champion these important institutions.
