In a recent letter to the newspaper (Sept. 2) Alan Sturtevant compares the love of gay and lesbian people to arson.

This offhand insult is itself morally wrong, but beyond that it’s just silly, as anyone who’s actually known many gay folks knows.

Among my friends are people in same-sex relationships; some are among the strongest, healthiest relationships I know of. The folks in them care for one another, they keep one another in line, they negotiate the challenges of life together. How is this like arson?

In the same edition, Kathryn Swegart suggests that same-sex marriage is a dangerous new experiment that threatens the primary function of marriage: Providing a stable environment for new children.

But if this is an experiment, it’s not at all new: Same-sex couples have existed since the recording of human history began. They’ve been raising children for a long time; they’re raising children all around us today. The experimental results are in: Despite lacking legal protections, they do it just as well as the rest of us, according to a growing body of well-conducted research.

As for the charge of unnatural-ness Swegart raises: Elderly couples marry in our society, when there is no question of creating new children. The natural function of pair-bonding extends past baby-making, even for people who do make babies.

Among humans, as among members of many other social species (biology is relevant if we’re talking natural-ness), there are members of the pack who help sustain it without contributing to the reproductive load.

Those mixed-sex and same-sex couples who don’t create children are not unnatural.

Matthew Freytag

East Vassalboro

Copy the Story Link