Did you know that, after a country legalises same sex marriage, the incidence of homophobic attacks increase? It’s happened in France and it’s happened in the UK. And with the arrival of videos like this one from Catholic Vote, we’ve no doubt it’ll happen in America, too.
Released less than a week after the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that same-sex couples should be given the same rights as opposite-sex couples, the video has racked up half a million views.
While heart-wrenching music plays (the sort that you’ve heard before in pro-same-sex marriage PSAs), various Catholics ‘come out’ in support of their right to say that other people should have fewer rights than them. It’s meant to tug hard at our sympathies:
‘I would say I am different, we’re all different’ one Catholic says. Another worries: ‘It’s pretty scary, you know, you wonder how many people can I really truly honestly be open with’
Then another gets tearful: ‘I’ve tried to change this before but it’s too important to me’
At this point it’s revealed the thing all these people of different creeds and colours have in common: they all think marriage should be between a man and a woman. ‘You’re not alone’ they all say at the end as the music soars and they begin to grow tearful.
Though the music can make you feel like, wow, they’re saying something powerful, they’re being honest and real and isn’t that great, the ad would be hilarious if it weren’t so depressing. While we agree that no-one’s opinions should be quashed without a hearing out, it’s all too easy to throw around that quote from Voltaire. You know, the one which goes ‘I do not agree with what you have to say but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it’?
Freedom of speech is important and powerful but when your opinions endorse behaviour that results in a minority of people being treated like they’re somehow inferior, what good is it?
There are people who want things to remain the same as they’ve always been, even if the way it’s always been harms others, because the way things are benefits them the most. And to cling onto these old ways of thinking, they’re borrowing the language of people trying to change stuff. The result is that advocates of same-sex marriage – everyone who changed their Facebook photo to a rainbow flag and beyond – should feel like hypocrites and the ones trying to clamp down on free speech. By punching down like this, already vulnerable people are made to feel worse. It’s calculated and it’s damaging.
Yes, churches in America are under attack - but they're the predominantly black churches being burned down by white supremacists, not the churches which are now having to consider if more people than ever can happily and solemnly get married under their naves.
Nice try, Catholic Voice, but you haven’t won us over.
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Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.