My unsolicited opinions -- now available via radio!

I was stuck up at our office all day yesterday doing data entry work and was listening to Relevant Radio online (I want to kiss whoever is responsible for their free, high-quality feed). Drew Mariani devoted his whole show to the gay marriage debate and, seeing as how I was stuck in front of a computer with nothing better to do, I dashed off an email to weigh in on the subject. He ended up reading it on the air and he and his guest remarked that it was a good point. That was a nice little bright spot in an otherwise dull day.

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From: Jennifer F.
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 5:21 PM
To: drew
Subject: The gay marriage debate isn't really about homosexuality...

Drew -

I don't think it's correct to see the current debate about gay marriage as primarily an issue with homosexuality. It's a subset of the larger problem that, mainly thanks to contraception, modern heterosexual marriage has degenerated into a sort of glorified roommate situation. The most common, accepted definition of (heterosexual) marriage today is that it's just a nice way to proclaim a long-term commitment when you really like someone. That's it. Everything else is optional. So it's not surprising or even that unreasonable that gays and lesbians look around and say, Hey, why can't we have that?

If we want to avoid the legalization of gay marriage we need to start with changing the way society defines heterosexual marriage. When are blase about the fact that the term "traditional marriage" has come to include contraception to make children optional, prenuptial agreements, no traditional gender roles, separate bank accounts, etc. it's hard to make the case to the gay and lesbian lobbies that heterosexual marriage is "special". This is the battle we must fight first.

Thanks, love your show!

Jennifer F.