Reason in favour of Gay Marriage #5:

Same Sex Marriage should be legalised because
SAME SEX MARRIAGE DOESN’T HARM ANYONE

Argument in favour of Gay Marriage:

If two consenting adults want to have their love for each other recognised, then what harm could possibly come from that?

The Facts:

A. Gay individuals are at a higher risk of mental health disorders than heterosexual people.

According to a research article that appeared in BMC Psychiatry (18 August 2008)*, “LGB people are at higher risk of mental disorder, suicidal ideation, substance misuse, and deliberate self harm than heterosexual people.” More specifically, the article states the following troubling statistics:

– There is a “a two fold excess in suicide attempts in lesbian, gay and bisexual people”.

–  “The risk for depression and anxiety disorders … were at least 1.5 times higher in lesbian, gay and bisexual people … and alcohol and other substance dependence over 12 months was also 1.5 times higher”.

–  “lesbian and bisexual women were particularly at risk of substance dependence … while lifetime prevalence of suicide attempt was especially high in gay and bisexual men”.

B. Higher risk of mental health disorders amongst gay individuals are not caused by negative attitudes towards them.

Gay activists love to cite statistics like the ones above as proof that discrimination against LGBT individuals causes them to have poorer mental health than the population at large. But that is simply not true. Simply because research shows the same high levels of mental health problems among gays in countries where homosexuality has been normalised as in countries where it is scorned. In other words, poor mental wellbeing of gays is not primarily caused by society’s attitudes towards them, but because of their being gay.  This is borne out by the following quotes.

– “We tend to assume that the psychological distress LGBTI people are often going through is due to family rejection. But it seems that’s not so much the case. The conflict seems to be largely related to relationship problems, with partners.”** — Dr. Delaney Skerrett, Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, Queensland.

– “… the homosexual equivalent of Romeo and Juliet is a major factor in suicide attempts. Since homosexuals have increased numbers of partners and breakups, compared with heterosexuals it is not surprising that suicide attempts are proportionally higher.”# –  Dr Neil Whitehead

– “… does pressure from society lead to mental health problems? Less than one might imagine. The Netherlands authors were  surprised to find so much mental illness in homosexual people because they thought tolerance to gay people was greater in the Netherlands than almost all other countries. Another test country is New Zealand. Although suicide attempts were common in the New Zealand study and occurred at about the same rate as US results, New Zealand is much more tolerant of homosexuality than the United States, and legislation giving the movement rights is powerful, enforced throughout the country, and virtually never challenged. Ross (1988) in his cross-cultural comparison of mental health in the United States, Netherlands and Denmark – which have very different attitudes to homosexuality – found similar mental health problems and concluded these might arise from a mistaken homosexual impression of public hostility, but it could be argued that this mistaken impression is almost a mental health problem in its own right. This again suggests societal hostility to homosexuality is not closely tied to homosexual mental health.”# –  Dr Neil Whitehead

C. Legalisation of same sex marriage curbs religious freedom

Recent events in the US and the UK have demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that legalising same sex marriage places severe restrictions on the religious freedom of individuals.

D. Legalising same sex marriage denies children the right to having both, a mother and a father.

This has been discussed  here.

E. Compromise of parental liberty

If same sex marriage is legalised, then parents no longer can teach their children what they think is right about life and sexuality. Instead, they will be forced to teach them what the state mandates. This is how same sex marriage has compromises parental liberty

So it’s patently clear that same sex marriage does a world of harm in various different ways. It is simply not true to say that same sex marriage does not harm anyone.

The Real Issues:

Gay activists desperately want to paint the picture that same sex relationships are just the same as heterosexual relationships. If they can get people to believe this, then obviously it would seem terribly unfair for heterosexual relationships to qualify for marriage but not homosexual relationships. But the truth of the matter is that same sex relationships are not the same as heterosexual relationships. As a category, opposite sex relationships don’t compromise the wellbeing of children. They don’t compromise the liberty of parents. They don’t restrict the religious freedom of individuals. And they don’t cause the kind of disorders that same sex relationships do.

Conclusion:

Same sex marriage compromises the wellbeing of children. Same sex marriage compromises parental liberty. Homosexual behaviour harms gays and lesbians. Same sex marriage compromises religious freedom. So to say that it doesn’t cause any harm is simply not true.

References:

*The paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-244X-8-70.pdf (accessed on 27 July 2015)

An abstract of the paper can be accessed here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18706118 (accessed on 27 July 2015)

** https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/homosexuals-more-likely-to-commit-suicide-due-to-problems-with-gay-lovers-t (accessed on 24 October 2015)

# http://mygenes.co.nz/mental_ill.htm

For more material on this particular aspect of the same sex marriage debate look up the following articles:

What harm would it do to legalize gay “marriage”?

How could gay marriage harm anyone?

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