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Aggressive policies retard gradual social change: why the case for pluralism won [Opposition Summary]

At it’s most basic level there are two questions that define this debate: 1) To whom is the insitution of marriage valuable, and how valuable is it to those different groups of people? 2) If we are concerned with the rights of homosexuals, how do we most effectively generate substantive equality? When the debate is painted thus it becomes clear that much of proposition’s substantive case was, broadly speaking, tangential to do the debate. Proposition expended a huge amount of energy discussing the Mary Coughlan ammendment, transgender individuals, and the fact that all homosexuals have a bachelors pad and a variety of STD’s. On team opposition we decided to focus the debate on the two central questions at stake: Why is marriage important, and what will the consequences be if we legalize same-sex marriages? 1) In terms of the first issue it was never quite clear what proposition’s case was. They mentioned, albeit fleetingly, that marriage brings to the couple a number of legal rights that are otherwise unattainable. They then tracked back, after we showed that civil unions are in most cases legally comparable/equal (and that there is no inherent reason why they cannot be), and instead argued that marriage was an important ‘social symbol’ (this was never justified, as we said – why do homosexuals have a right to a particular religious or cultural blessing?). If this is all the substantive value that proposition could show, it seems that their case is already on shaky ground. In response to proposition we argued that marriage has tremendous socio-cultural and religious value to a large portion of most populations. This is evidenced by the fact that in most countries there is a strong majority that rejects the very notion of same-sex marriage. At the same time, we showed that only a tiny number of homosexuals are actually interested in same-sex marriage, evidenced by substantial quantitative research on the UK, the USA and other European countries. We then added extra meat to the discussion by considering the role of the state and the role of public opinion. We argued that we must remain agnostic on the ‘morality’ of homosexuality, and that it is the business of the citizenry to legislate for itself on such issues. Proposition’s glib response to this was that ‘majorities don’t get their way when it harms minority groups’, a sentiment that was (a) normatively unjustified, and (b) falsified in our rebuttal. This is an inadequate challenge of opposition’s clash, centred around the acceptability of moral and legal pluralism in respect of same-sex marriage. The first issue, then, clearly falls to team opposition. 2) Proposition’s case never really managed to leave behind the notion of formal equality (nominally equal rights) for a focus on substantive equality (equal treatment). On team opposition we articulated, from the very start, that it is substantive equality that really matters. We showed that imposing on the cultural and religious interests and values of the majority (of which marriage is a central and important one) can have very dangerous backlashes on the liberal rights movement (invoking the effectively un-rebutted example of South Africa’s legalization of same-sex marriage). It was only in response to this substantive attack that proposition finally suggested some link from formal rights to substantive rights – the idea that the state should be a ‘pathfinder’ for the citizenry. This argument, which was justified by analogy only (and no actual analysis of the example of marriage), was dismantled rather thoroughly by team opposition. We showed that the analogies presented by proposition were in fact entirely and absolutely disanalagous, and that in a vast number of cases the state has not acted as a pathfinder at all. We even showed that, when the state makes decisions that reject the interests and values of the majority (which team proposition’s policy clearly does), it often leads to dangerous consequences. The only other argument made by proposition, that suggested something similar, was their analysis of stereotyping. Here they failed, rather profoundly, to explain why it was that the issue of *marriage* was so crucial in the construction of stereotypes. This failure is symptomatic of the grand failure of their case – to show why it is that legalizing same-sex marriage is of particular importance. On team opposition we produced a number of refutations to this point, showing that the proposition’s assumptions about stereotypes were both misguided and not linked to marriage. It is clear, then that the second question was also answered, most convincingly, by team opposition. By establishing the right of self-governance as the cornerstone of liberal society, by showing that proposition’s case presents benefits that are tangential at best, and by showing that a secular state’s imposition on marriage, a religious and cultural institution, will have serious negative consequences in the fight for substantive equality for the gay community itself, we on team opposition beg that the motion fall.