Red diaper baby David Horowitz is an expert on the mentality of the Radical Left. In his pamplet Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution, (which I highly recommend, by the way) David makes the following point:
An SDS radical once wrote, “the issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.” In other words, the cause-whether inner city blacks or women–is never the real cause, but only an occasion to advance the real cause, which is the accumulation of power to make the revolution.
I would add, whether the cause is the redefinition of marriage or the expansion of entitlements for homosexuals, the issue is never the issue: the revolution is the issue.
Exhibit A: This April 2011 story, from Radio Netherlands,
“Just 20 percent of Dutch homosexual couples are married, compared with 80 percent of heterosexual couples, fresh figures by Statistics Netherlands show. Since 1 April 2001, when the Netherlands became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage, some 15,000 gay and lesbian couples have tied the knot. That is two percent of all marriages celebrated in Holland, and just 20 percent of the 55,000 same-sex couples the country numbers. Among the country’s 4.1 million heterosexual couples, 80 percent are married.”
The demands for the redefinition of marriage are not really about making it possible for people to marry persons of the same sex. If it were, there would be more same sex weddings after ten years. These demands are about fundamentally altering, revolutionizing really, the basic building block of society: the man/woman marriage and their children. The man/woman marriage does not need the assistance of the state, or of any other individuals, in order to replicate its own structure. Men and women can come together naturally, without any coaching, permission or urging from the state, to create their own little society, independent of the state.
That is what the radicals find so offensive.
“Every legitimate objective of gay and lesbian people can be met without redefining marriage.” I believe that so firmly that I have it posted at the bottom of the Ruth Institute home page. But that is not enough for the radicals. The issue is never the issue: the issue is always the revolution.
You say you don’t want a revolution? Then distance yourself from the revolutionary objectives and tactics.