“I’ve been libertarian on same-sex marriage for years, before Obergefell.” ~ Ben Shapiro
I am not on Twitter. I have never been on Twitter. I never intend to be on Twitter. So please forgive me for taking a year to notice that Ben Shapiro smeared libertarians on Twitter.
Obergefell is a reference to the Supreme Court case of Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) in which the Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. At issue were these two questions:
(1) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex?
(2) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex that was legally licensed and performed in another state?
The vote was 5-4 along ideological lines. Reagan appointee Anthony Kennedy was the swing vote, and wrote the majority opinion.
In their dissenting opinions, Justices Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito all argued that same-sex marriage was a state issue not addressed by the Constitution, and that the judicial branch was legislating.
But some libertarians feel that the Court made the right decision. They agree with Ben Shapiro that government recognition of same-sex marriage is “libertarian.”
Yes, and some libertarians voted for comrade Joe Biden, think that men who identify as women should be able to play on women’s sports teams, think that a man in a dress should be able to use the women’s restroom, oppose more restrictions on abortion even as they support fewer restrictions on voter IDs, support the right of gender-confused individuals to change the gender on their birth certificate, think face masks and social distancing helped to slow the spread of Covid-19, think vaccine passports are a good idea, and recommend that people get the dangerous and unnecessary Covid-19 vaccine.
Let me be as succinct as possible: Marriage has always been and will forever be the union of a man and a woman.
The government can no more legitimize same-sex marriage than it can decree that 2 + 2 = 5, up is down, right is left, and black is white.
It doesn’t matter if someone is or identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, queer, non-binary, questioning, intersex, gender fluid, non-conforming, pansexual, bicurious, polysexual, polyamorous, asexual, or transitioning. It doesn’t matter what anyone’s sexual fantasies, desires, or practices are. The government cannot pronounce something so that is not so.
A same-sex marriage is not a marriage. It may be a domestic partnership or a civil union with a friend, a friend with benefits, a shack up, a beneficiary, a cohabitant, a companion, a housemate, a lover, a life partner, a significant other, a spousal equivalent, a mate, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a concubine, a f**k buddy, or a casual sex partner. But it is not a marriage.
In a free society, consenting adults are free to engage in any sexual activity of their choosing, with each other or with a group, with people of the same sex, the opposite sex, or both, no matter how deviant, kinky, dangerous, wicked, unnatural, vile, perverted, repulsive, immoral, licentious, or sinful it is—as long as it is done on their own property, or someone else’s property with permission, and they don’t force others to watch it, partake in it, or accept it as normal.
In a free society, consenting adults are free to have any form of living arrangement that they choose, with any number of people of the same sex, the opposite sex, or both—as long as the property owner permits it.
These are libertarian positions. This doesn’t mean that cohabitation, fornication, debauchery, adultery, bondage, sadism, masochism, perversion, hedonism, and lasciviousness are neutral, wholesome, harmless, right, or good. It just means that it is not the business of government to concern itself with anyone’s sexual proclivities or living arrangements.
In a free society, anyone is free to call a dog a cat, a Plymouth a Pontiac, a bat a ball, or a trout a snapper. But that doesn’t make it so.
In a free society, anyone is free to form any kind of legal arrangement they choose whereby medical and financial decisions by one party on behalf of another could be made. But a marriage is not necessary for this to take place.
Likewise, in a free society, a same-sex couple is free to have a ceremony, exchange rings, have a reception, have sex, go on a honeymoon, live together, and call their arrangement a marriage. But that still doesn’t make it so.
There is nothing libertarian about recognizing a same-sex “marriage.” Shapiro and the left-libertarians he is looking to (certainly not all left-libertarians) have a cartoonish view of libertarianism. These are the same people who think that libertarianism is a lifestyle or that it means low-tax liberalism, and that being a libertarian means being socially liberal but fiscally conservative.
I think the Covid vaccine that Shapiro thinks should be mandatory has rotted his brain.
