Your arguments are, indeed, the right ones to fall back on in attempting to persuade a majority to support gay marriage. Opponents would say that statistical recurrence cannot set standards of normality, or we would have to say that pedophilia, adultery, and incest, which are ubiquitous and perennial, are normal. "Normality", in this case, expresses a preference, that is, the idea that heterosexuality is, to some degree, better, if only because it is not inherently barren. It is relative, and does not necessarily mean that other things are bad.
Of course, childless heterosexual unions could be viewed with the same antagonism, and the answer might be to place them in the inferior category of domestic partnership. They are not, though, inherent red flags, since the ultimate choice of the couple is unknown, perhaps even to themselves, at the time of wedlock. Of course, there are elderly marriages, which might be subject to the same objection as homosexual marriages. I would suppose that opponents of homosexual marriage would point out that elderly marriage does not have the comparable "red flag" aspect of homosexual union, but that it blends in.
I mention homosexual adoption in passing because it could support a claim of family formation. Although it is preferable to have gay adoption, if the choice is between that and institutionalization, generally it is consider preferable to have sexual bipolarity in parenting. |
