Gay Marriage: The Intolerance of the “Tolerant”

Gay Marriage is a huge issue in the news again despite there being many more important issues such as the debt, Afghanistan, Iran, spending, taxes, unemployment, underemployment, the economy, ObamaCare, Social Security, Medicare, etc. etc.. First it was Joe Biden saying he supported gay marriage, then it was the decision in North Carolina, and finally Romney stating he's against gay marriage and Obama evolving into a gay marriage supporter. My post in not regarding the support or opposition of gay marriage; both sides have reasonable arguments available to promote their positions. This post instead will be concerning the intolerance of the supposedly tolerant gay marriage supporters. 

I decided to weigh in on this subject because of the people that have been posting about gay marriage on Facebook. The predominant, perhaps unanimous, view from my Facebook friends posting on this issue is that they support gay marriage and anyone who is against gay marriage must be an idiot, bigot, and/or a religious nut. This might clear up why those comments about gay marriage on Facebook are all pro-gay marriage comments since the people who are against gay marriage are probably afraid to say so publicly on Facebook since the other side thinks so lowly of their position that was “obviously” a creation of their “prejudice.” What I realize, that makes me laugh, when reading these Facebook posts is that the people that think they are “tolerant” and support “diversity” are in a way, just the opposite!

The problem is that these pro-gay marriage Facebook posters have no tolerance for the opposing position and believe that any differing opinion on the gay-marriage issue must be due to idiocy or bigotry. Since they don’t care for the diversity of ideas, they arrive at a position without even trying to accurately understand the other side’s position thus making their own position weak. After all, it is easier to just call the other side idiots and bigots than to have to think, analyze, and while doing those things, be in fear that your position might not be the most reasonable. Why analyze both sides of an issue when you already have a position, right? 

Also, it seems that the gay marriage supporters’ positions are formed based on a deconstruction of the reasons they think people are against gay marriage rather than formed based on a constructive argument for gay marriage. They think that people who are against gay marriage are stupid, bigots, and religious nuts and that’s primarily why they have the opposite position as they would not want to be considered stupid, a bigot, or a religious nut. That’s no argument though; it’s merely taking a position based on believing the other side’s position is intolerant when in reality it is not! (There are fringe intolerant people, who just hate gays, but prejudice is not the argument of the vast majority of those that are against gay marriage and most pro-gay marriage people don’t comprehend that). 

What this all boils down to is that the so called "tolerant" pro-gay marriage people are the ones that are intolerant of those who stand on the other side of the gay marriage issue (while also misrepresenting their position). Many gay marriage supporters don't understand their opposition's stance and ironically thus do not understand their own stance. This is just another example of Democrats being the party of diversity, just not the diversity of ideas.