Notre Dame Student's Argument Against Gay Marriage Proves to World He's Taken Maybe One Philosophy Class

But blundering his main point doesn’t dissuade Bradley from pressing on. Quickly going over the other things that make up a marriage, Bradley notes that marriage is between one man and one woman because it’s not just about love and sex but about sharing yourself completely with another person, something you can’t really do unless you’re a heterosexual couple.

Those who commit themselves to shared action toward procreation and domestic life, to the union of body and mind, commit themselves to married life. Those who dedicate themselves to other noble purposes — sisters who run an orphanage or lifelong friends who decide to share retired life together — are not married. In general, two men or two women may love each other, may desire to share all aspects of domestic life, and may make a pledge of permanent and exclusive commitment to each other. But those commitments are distinct from the marital commitment, which must include bodily union, something that unites two persons of the opposite sex (on equal terms).

Wait, so does that mean that infertile couples and those who decide not to have children are therefore not married? Because that’s exactly what that sounds like. Does that render two people who got married in a court of law (and probably before Christ and company) “just friends” if they decide to embark on an activity other than procreating and filling the world with believers?

While the rest of the editorial is worth a read—if only to remind yourself that issues of equality will not disappear as the older generations die out and more progressive minds take over— it’s interesting that Bradley is so upset that anyone might want to redefine marriage to include couples they don’t agree with that he completely ignores why gay and lesbian couples want the same rights. It’s not just because it makes our relationships legitimate (they already are), but because it allows gay couples the same tax breaks that straight couples have as well as the ability to visit their partners in the hospital and be considered next of kin for the purposes of advanced health directives. It gives them equal protection under the law. And, if Bradley’s argument that having children makes a marriage is to be considered valid, than what do you call the union of two women who have children via artificial insemination or two men who adopt? How is that any different from a straight couple who choose to use a surrogate to deliver a healthy baby unto this world? Why does the heterosexuals’ pairing make a marriage while the other examples mentioned are more akin to “two spinster sisters running an orphanage?”

If there’s anyone who’s changing the definition of marriage, it’s those people that are so against the idea of two people of the same sex claiming that word. They’re the ones who, like Bradley, are always changing the goalposts for what constitutes a “legitimate union.” And while some, like Bradley, try to hide their disgust that people whose sexual orientations differ from their own are finally being extended some of the same rights and privileges by descending into presudo-intellectual naval-gazing drivel they deem worthy of being published, their arguments continue to fall flat. Marriage, isn’t just for one man and one woman. It’s for two people who experience romantic love and/or want to step into a permanent legal arrangement that benefits both parties.

After all, what makes the marriage between two straight best friends who decide to get hitched in order to share health insurance any more legitimate than the union of two men or two women? And what if the gay couple is the only one interested in having children? Who’s married then?

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