The case for legalizing same-sex marriage was always straightforward. Marriage, as ordained by the state, is a legal contract between two consenting adults that comes with numerous logistical benefits to encourage more two-parent households. Atheists and devout believers in traditional religious marriage alike can concede that so long as no church, mosque, or temple must issue any marriage of any kind unwillingly, the government should not stand in the way between two consenting adults of the same sex entering a legal marriage contract.
The simple rightness of this explains why proponents of marriage equality won — not by promising to persecute those on the other side, but by appealing to everyone’s civil liberties. Though some originalists may gripe with the rationale behind the Obergefell decision that legalized gay marriage nationwide in 2015, public opinion has already taken a clear turn in a very short space of time.
10 years ago, just four in ten Americans believed that the government — not any church or social institution — ought to deem same-sex marriages as valid, with nearly six in ten opposing. Today, nearly two-thirds of Americans support the government recognition of same-sex marriage, with just a tad more than one-third opposing.
So, gay marriage won. But that didn’t stop CNN from relitigating the issue with Elizabeth Warren at their four-hour-plus long town hall on gay issues.
Morgan Cox, board chairman of the Human Rights Campaign, asked the insurgent presidential front-runner what she’d say to a religious person who argues, “my faith teaches me that marriage is between one man and one woman.”
“Well,” Warren replied. “I’m going to assume it’s a guy who said that, and I’m going to say then just marry one woman. I’m cool with that, assuming you can find one.”
To start with an obvious falsehood, men and women support government-recognized gay marriage at nearly identical rates — 61% and 66% respectively. Warren’s implied sexism here isn’t just distasteful. It’s also built upon a statistical lie, which isn’t a surprise.
But more significant is Warren’s entire approach to the question. Rather than argue as gay rights advocates have for decades that government recognition of a contract doesn’t impede religious institutions, Warren ignores the implied religious liberty concern entirely and then relies on a rude insult.
Naturally, the media wet themselves over her answer.
Elizabeth Warren’s pro-equal marriage putdown is the best thing you’ll see today pic.twitter.com/rfCQ7RzpkN
— The Independent (@Independent) October 11, 2019
The delivery here makes this even funnier pic.twitter.com/Edywcie5Yf
— jordan (@JordanUhl) October 11, 2019
When you know you’ve nailed your answer at the LGBT forum pic.twitter.com/1j897JG0iU
— Sam Stein (@samstein) October 11, 2019
For months already, the media have not been hiding the fact that they’re in the tank for Warren. But that they should latch on so approvingly to this mean-spirited answer, which ignores the most universal case for marriage equality, points to how much more insufferable 2020 will be than 2016. I’d be inclined to chalk it up to journalists being so out of touch, but there’s another answer that makes me less generous. I don’t think Warren forgot the best argument. I think that she and her media lackeys just don’t believe in it anymore.
Beto O’Rourke on religious institutions losing tax-exempt status for opposing same-sex marriage: “There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone … that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us” #EqualityTownHall pic.twitter.com/tjwVGqv5h0
— CNN (@CNN) October 11, 2019
