Comments on: ‘I’ve been compared to the Ku Klux Clan’ – Brendan O’ Neill on same-sex marriage

By: Adam Long

Adam Long — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 01:16:36 +0000

It’s also complete nonsense to suggest gay people and our issues have suddenly been elevated to some kind of ‘elite’ status, not to mention deeply offensive to the many people who are still confronted with homophobic abuse in their daily lives.

Some perspective here – nearly half of the countries in the world still criminalise homosexuality and indeed state sanctioned bigotry against gay people is on the rise in many places, due in no small part to anti-gay fundamentalists from the US exporting their hate particularly to Africa.

And far from opposition to gay rights being seen as beyond the pale in America, as is disingenuously claimed above, it is perfectly legal to fire someone due to their sexual orientation in most states. Indeed, despite a Supreme Court ruling in 2003, some states even retain sodomy laws, including North Carolina where it is still officially defined as a ‘crime against nature’!

Yes, the gay civil rights movement is making progress, but it is a hard fought battle where distortions and untruths from the likes of your interviewee need to be constantly challenged.

By: Adam Long

Adam Long — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 00:53:18 +0000

I’m always amazed at the verbal gymnastics employed by anti-gay talking heads such as Brendan O’Neill in order to make a relatively straight forward issue seem complicated, and also to hide what fundamentally drives their reactionary views on this issue – a belief that gay people are inferior and thus undeserving of equal rights.

Because for people like Brendan O’Neill, the idea that same-sex couples simply want their unions celebrated, recognised and validated in the same way that straight couples do, is an alien concept that might just challenge long held homophobic assumptions and beliefs on their part.

Ultimately, when you strip away a lot of the nonsense that often surrounds this debate, the issue comes down to two loving same-sex adults being allowed enter a civil marriage and attain the rights that heterosexuals take for granted. Nothing more, nothing less – it’s about equal rights (not ‘special rights’ – a phrase so beloved of the anti-gay lobby in America in particular)

On a symbolic level, it does also have the benefit of society making clear that gay people are full and equal citizens – a message that is especially important to young LGBT’s coming to terms with their sexuality. That can only be a positive thing, unless you are part of the increasingly small minority who still cling to outdated and offensive notions regarding homosexuality.

It’s also clear that O’Neill only wants to accept gay people on his own narrow, stereotypical terms – a separate group that lives on the margins of society quite distinct from the masses he so fondly speaks of. It’s almost as if we should be grateful that we are no longer criminalised and should now simply shut up and go back to the shadows. But what is missing in such a flawed analysis is that this ‘us vs them’ mentality is clearly breaking down. Through social and political devlopments, but most importantly through gay people having the courage to increasingly lead our lives openly and honestly, most now know someone who is gay – we are peoples sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, friends etc. This is what is driving the current debate and why extending the right to marry for same-sex couples is not only the right thing to do in principle but also the popular thing (73% according to the latest poll)

Brendan O’Neill is on record as stating that allowing gay couples marry will ‘devalue’ the entire institution. That, more than anything, should give your readers an insight into what motivates his (and many other anti-gay commentators) views on this topic -a belief that gay people are unworthy of the same rights as heterosexuals and who will only sully the fine institution of marriage for everyone else. But thankfully it seems a growing majority of society disagrees and is more than ready to extend full equality to their fellow citizens who happen to be gay.

By: Chap

Chap — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 14:07:33 +0000

For all the same points he uses to justify his own thoughts on the issue, he falls down. O’Neil is just ratifying his own argument based on his own studied opinion of previous civil rights movements. He says how the suffragettes ‘ weren’t asking for the franchise to become something different, they just wanted to be included within the already existing right to vote’ and how the blacks were asking only to be included in ‘an already existing institution.’ … Both of which are exactly what the gay community are doing! Marriage between a man and a woman has been defined in this country by and only by the church, which for too long as we’re all aware and have over the past few years had too much influence in our laws. For the same reason those civil rights movements took place in the 50’s and 60’s so too should the issue of Gay Marriage be sorted. O’Neil can use his words and case studies as fickily as he likes, but as we can all look back and see, those movements took place because it was immoral and wrong to have ever let any minority or community be so oppressed, and why were they oppressed? Because the likes of religiously influenced powers saw fit. A book which condoned slavery, and the hierarchical placement of men over women and gays etc, and this is the only reason we still have things like the gay issue. Because of old laws and old thought processes long embedded in us. O’Neil is a snob and justifies his own take on the issue without baring to common sense or decency which could be equally applied to his black/female vote argument.Unless we’re to assume that his feelings on the female vote and black civil rights movement simply had to be done and he’s none too happy about equal rights but because it didn’t involve too much change or blur the lines between political ‘re-definition’ or whatever it is that he see’s such a huge difference being in writing same sex marriage into law. His mental health rant is just pointless even mention.