The arguments being made in court aren’t why most individuals say they oppose same-sex marriage. That’s just one of the findings Indiana University and Columbia University sociologists presented in an article titled “Public Opinion, the Courts, and Same-Sex Marriage: Four Lessons Learned.”
The article, which was published in the journal Social Currents, is based on the results of IU’s Constructing the Family Survey and supplemented with data from the National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey. Lead author and IU sociology department chairman Brian Powell said of people who strongly oppose same-sex marriage, more than 90 percent say they do so because they believe it is immoral.
Powell said many people who hear this aren’t shocked, but the reason it’s interesting is because that’s not one of the arguments being made against same-sex marriage in the courts. That’s because moral opposition doesn’t make a strong legal argument.
“You can’t have a law that treats people differently because you don’t like them,” he said.
Instead, one of the arguments being made is that same-sex couples don’t need to be allowed to get married because the purpose of marriage is to encourage responsible procreation. This argument is somewhat convoluted, because a 90-year-old man could still marry an 83-year-old woman even though they are obviously not going to have children, Powell said. It also contradicts another common argument, which is that same-sex parenting is not as effective, and it’s in the state’s best interest to promote good parenting.
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