On Gay Marriage, Empathy is a Two-Way Street
Monday, November 9th, 2009Once again, state voters – this time in Maine, hardly a conservative stronghold – have voted down same-sex marriage. Leaving what she thought would be a victory party after last week’s balloting, an emotional Cecelia Burnett said, “I don’t understand what the fear is, why people are so afraid of this change.”
That’s a big part of the gay marriage side’s problem: They cannot imagine why, aside from bigotry, anyone would disagree with them. To be sure, anyone on the traditional marriage side who doesn’t understand that denying marriage to same-sex couples imposes a serious burden on them is either willfully ignorant or hard-hearted. The thing is, empathy should go both ways.
Leaving aside that there is undoubtedly a significant number of people who vote against gay marriage because they flat-out don’t like gay people, there are serious and important reasons to vote against same-sex marriage – and these deserve to be taken seriously.
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