How gay marriage protects heterosexual marriage

The religious right is endlessly screeching about how same-sex marriage will undermine traditional marriage, erode its foundations, and turn everyone queer with gay rays (or something). In fact, it’s the exact contrary that is true: allowing homosexuals to wed would actually help to protect heterosexual marriage. It turns out that gay marriage would actually prevent a lot of people from needlessly being hurt, and not just homosexuals.

As the debate over legalizing same-sex marriage in the District grows louder and more polarized, there are people whose support for the proposal is personal but not often talked about. They are federal workers and professionals, men and women who share little except that their former spouses tried to live as heterosexuals but at some point realized they could not.

Many of these former spouses -- from those who still feel raw resentment toward their exes to those who have reached a mutual understanding -- see the legalization of same-sex marriage as a step toward protecting not only homosexuals but also heterosexuals. If homosexuality was more accepted, they say, they might have been spared doomed marriages followed by years of self-doubt.

I have to mentally slap myself for never having seen the issue from this particular angle; it makes so much sense. Sounds to me like yet another great reason for which homosexuals should be allowed to wed with each other, instead of being restricted to marrying people of the opposite gender whom they can never really love with the same passion. Being forced to live a lie like that simply cannot end in anything other than heartbreak for anyone involved. Gay marriage would help prevent that.

If this doesn’t thoroughly destroy that stupid anti-gay marriage argument that same-sex marriage would hurt heterosexuals and their unions, I dunno what will.

(via @todayspolitics)
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