Monday, April 01, 2013

Enough with the "it's not natural" nonsense already

The more I think about this, the more it steams my clams.  Georgia GOP Chairwoman Sue Everhart was quoted by the Marietta Daily Journal giving voice to a common sentiment among opponents of same-sex marriage:
[I]t is not natural for two women or two men to be married,” Everhart said. “If it was natural, they would have the equipment to have a sexual relationship."
I have news for you, Ms. Everhart: gays can (and do) have sexual relationships.  (I always thought that was the problem people had with gays to begin with, that they had sex.  Meh, what do I know?)

But Ms. Everahart is right about one thing: it is in fact not natural for to women or two men to be married.  But it is also not natural for one man and one woman to be married.  The natural (and Biblical, by the way) state of affairs is polygamy.  This is because females maximize their reproductive fitness by mating with the highest status male, while males maximize their reproductive fitness by mating with as many females as possible.  Yes, beer googles can be explained in Darwinian terms.

So what exactly is it that makes being "unnatural" so bad?  Lots of things are unnatural.  Cities, for example.  Sanitation.  Cars.  Movies.  Laws.  Democracy.  Capitalism.  Scotch.  Cell phones.  The internet.  Deep-fried Twinkies.

Religion.  Churches.  Science.

Wearing clothes.

All of these things are unnatural.

Unnatural is a good thing, or at least it can be.  Unnatural is what sets humanity apart from the animals.  The ability to transcend and rise above nature is what makes it possible for us to be noble, artistic, technological, the masters of our fates.

Fair warning: the next person who says in my presence that gays should not be allowed to marry because it's unnatural will get dope-smacked.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beer goOgles?

Ron said...

Heh, Freudian typo. I think I'll leave it. :-)