There are plenty of ridiculous arguments against same-sex marriage. But this one wins. Meet Bob Nelson of Protect Marriage Maryland. The sweater-vested mastermind behind the above video, Nelson begins his argument like this:
“I’m holding a 20-dollar bill.”
Go on.
“Now, if you want to find out whether this is counterfeit or not, you can look at it in the light, perhaps, or compare it with some other bills, but you probably should check with the people who print this money to see whether it really is legal and not counterfeit.”
I can buy that.
“But when we talk about marriage, how do we know whether marriage is authentic, or whether it’s counterfeit?”
Annnnd he lost me.
The rest of the video doesn’t disappoint. Slade Sohmer of HyperVocal pretty much sums it up:
[Nelson] is one of those fine Americans who spends more time concerned with barring gay men and women from joining his ranks than “protecting” marriage from heterosexuals who routinely divorce and re-hitch. Nelson’s press releases and YouTube videos following Britney Spears’ 24-hour Vegas wedding, Newt Gingrich’s third nuptials, and Rush Limbaugh’s fourth matrimonial foray seem to be missing from the public record.
(Hat tip to TBD’s Amanda Hess.)
I like how he argues that throughout history, marriage has always been between one man and one women. Like cultures with polygamy never existed. Like polygamy wasn’t in his own bible. Someone ask him how many wives Abraham had.
*sigh*
Insert eye-roll here. I once had a guy tell me that, as a woman, I should be against same-sex marriage because it would devalue the concept, and eventually erode the importance that society places on marriage. This, of course, would mean that things like benefits that are given to spouses would cease to exist. Of course, since the woman is usually on the man’s benefits, this would be detrimental to women – who, as the weaker sex, really need those benefits. Natch. He then explained to me that the reason steam was coming off of my head at that comment… Read more »