In responding to President Barack
Obama's call in his inaugural address for gay marriage, the Illinois
Family Institute (IFI), a Christian conservative group working to
derail an effort to make Illinois the 10th state to
approve marriage equality, argued that gay men and lesbians are
simply refusing to participate in marriage.
In an blog post titled Obama
Inaugural Speech: The Audacity of a Bad Analogy, IFI cultural
analyst Laurie Higgins knocked Obama for including Stonewall in a
reference to civil rights movements. She lamented having to “address
the comparison of homosexuality to sex or race yet again. But like
the emperor's non-existing clothes, Obama and his court continue to
trot it out in public, knowing that the masses still deceive
themselves into finding it utterly bedazzling.”
“A more sound analogy would compare
homosexuality to polyamory or pedophilia,” Higgins argued
She added that gay men and lesbians are
refusing to participate in marriage.
“First, those who choose to place
their same-sex attraction at the center of their identity are
'treated like anyone else under the law.' They are perfectly free to
participate in the sexually complementary institution of marriage.
They choose not to. They are not asking to be treated equally. They
are demanding to be treated specially. They want the unilateral
right to jettison the central defining feature of marriage (i.e.
sexual complementarity) – something, by the way, that polygamists,
polyamorists, 'minor-attracted persons,' and sibling-lovers are not
permitted to do”
“Second, does our president actually
believe the idea he clunkily articulated in his speech, that 'surely
the love we commit to one another must be equal as well?' Does he
believe the love polygamists 'commit' to their wives 'must be equal
as well?' Does he believe the love a high school teacher commits to
his student 'must be equal as well?' Does he believe the love five
polyamorists of assorted genders 'commit' to one another 'must be
equal” as well?' Does he believe the love a brother and sister
'commit' to each other 'must be equal as well?'”
ThinkProgress' Zack Ford refuted
Higgins claims.
“It's an important opportunity to
recognize why the comparisons Higgins provides are offensive and
inaccurate,” Ford
wrote. “Polygamists and polyamorists who are open to multiple
simultaneous relationships are not acting on behalf of an innate
sexual orientation. A high school teacher in a romantic relationship
with a student is violating that student's consent and compromising
the learning environment. Laws against incest protect young people
from rape, child molestation, and abusive incest as well as the
genetic consequences of inbreeding. Though homosexuality has
historically shared a reputation with these other forms of
relationships for being taboo, modern understandings of sexuality
negate the ongoing juxtaposition.”