Gay Marriage -- Let's get the facts right

In a diary entry on RedState.org, NotSoBlueStater posses the question of, "Why Do Conservatives Oppose Gay Marriage?" and presents an argument that just does not hold up.

Seems to me that if a conservative acknowledges the right to be homosexual at all, he or she should actually support gay marriage. After all, which do we want do we want to encourage: Stable, long-term relationships, or bed hopping?

The problem with the argument presented, among others, is that the idea of a monogamous gay relationship is a myth. If you are to understand the conservative point of view on this issue, religious or not, you have to give an honest look at the research, and get the facts.

The truth is that even in long term so-called monogamous relationship among gay couples, research has shown there is always an arrangement for a little bed hopping. True monogamy in gay relationships are a myth!

There are countless of other factors that everyone seems to ignore when it comes to the effects of legalized gay marriage on society. For example, consider what would happen to our Social Security system. Dr. Dobson writes some compelling arguments on this.

With millions of new eligible dependents, what will happen to the Social Security system that is already facing bankruptcy? If it does collapse, what will that mean for elderly people who must rely totally on that meager support? Who is thinking through these draconian possibilities as we careen toward "a brave new world"?

The biggest one for me is the fact that children would suffer in huge ways! Again, looking at the research, the evidence is clear that ultimately children are meant to be nurtured and raised in a two parent, heterosexual environment. There are components of normal, healthy human development that can only be found in a healthy heterosexual relationship. This is why divorce is such a huge poison to our society. Let's be clear. In terms of the harm it does to society, a divorce has very similar destructive effects on our society as homosexuality.

The implications for children in a world of decaying families are profound. Because homosexuals are rarely monogamous, often having as many as three hundred or more partners in a lifetime -- some studies say it is typically more than one thousand -- children in those polyamorous situations are caught in a perpetual coming and going. It is devastating to kids, who by their nature are enormously conservative creatures. They like things to stay just the way they are, and they hate change. Some have been known to eat the same brand of peanut butter throughout childhood.

More than ten thousand studies have concluded that kids do best when they are raised by loving and committed mothers and fathers. They are less likely to be on illegal drugs, less likely to be retained in a grade, less likely to drop out of school, less likely to commit suicide, less likely to be in poverty, less likely to become juvenile delinquents, and for the girls, less likely to become teen mothers. They are healthier both emotionally and physically, even thirty years later, than those not so blessed by traditional parents.

Social scientists have been surprisingly consistent in warning about the impact of fractured families. If present trends continue, the majority of children will have several "moms" and "dads," perhaps six or eight "grandparents," and dozens of half-siblings. It will be a world where little boys and girls are shuffled from pillar to post in an ever-changing pattern of living arrangements; where huge numbers of them will be raised in foster-care homes or living on the street, as millions do in countries all over the world today. Imagine an environment where nothing is stable and where people think primarily about themselves and their own self-preservation. And have you considered what will happen when homosexuals with children become divorced? Instead of two moms and two dads, they will have to contend with four moms or four dads. How would you like to be a new husband a generation later who instantly had four or six or eight mother-in-laws.

There is simply no way one can justify homosexual marriage as a healthy thing for society. Let's be clear--individuals who practice the homosexual lifestyle have the same rights every citizen enjoys. I do not believe they should be ridiculed, abused, or rejected because of their choices. But I cannot get around the fact that the lifestyle is harmful.

The challenge is to care and love the individual, as every human being is called to do with others, but to reject the choices and actions that are harmful to that same individual and others. What friend would sanction or bless lifestyle choices that would ultimately cause hurt, pain or even death