Conservatism
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stripped down and reassembled in the same way as, say, a bicycle. Second, organisms are shaped by ‘natural’ factors rather than human ingenuity. An organic society is fashioned, ultimately, by natural necessity. For example, the family has not been ‘invented’ by any social thinker or political theorist, but is a product of natural social impulses such as love, caring and responsibility. In no sense do children in a family agree to a ‘contract’ on joining the family – they simply grow up within it and are nurtured and guided by it. This inclination to see the family as an organic entity helps to explain, among other things, why many conservatives oppose same-sex marriage.
POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES IN ACTION . . . SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
EVENTS: In 1989, Denmark became the first country in the world to legally recognize same- sex unions, after passing a bill legalizing ‘registered partnerships’. Similar legislation recognizing ‘civil unions’ followed in Norway, Sweden, Iceland, the Netherlands, Belgium and France during the 1990s. In 2000, the Netherlands signed into law the first same-sex marriage law in the world. However, there was also a backlash against same- sex marriage, most particularly in the USA. In 2003, the Federal Marriage Amendment, which proposed to add language to the US Constitution stating that marriage should only occur between a man and a woman, was introduced to the House of Representatives, while 23 US states banned same-sex marriage between 2004 and 2006. By 2019, some 30 states and territories had enacted national laws allowing gays and lesbians to marry. SIGNIFICANCE: In a development that has been especially pronounced in the USA, same-sex marriage has been a prominent cultural ‘wedge’ issue, dividing liberals and conservatives, since the early 1990s. Conservatives have opposed same- sex marriage on a number of grounds. They have claimed, for example, that marriage is essentially a ‘natural’ – that is, biological – institution. As its defining purpose is to provide for the procreation of children, if procreation does not lie at its heart, marriage ceases to be virtuous and instead becomes selfish, even narcissistic. Furthermore, because conservatives take men and women to be ‘equal but different’, heterosexual unions are deemed to be more stable and ‘balanced’ than homosexual ones, husbands and wives, and fathers and mothers, tending to complement one
another. Finally, and most starkly, some religious conservatives declare that homosexuality is simply ‘wrong’ or ‘evil’, regardless of whether it takes place within the context of marriage. However, the debate over same-sex marriage does not just take place between conservatives and liberals; it also divides conservatives themselves. Thus, although same-sex marriage was made legal in England and Wales in 2014 under a Conservative prime minister, David Cameron, many right-wing Conservative backbenchers were left feeling deeply aggrieved about this. At least three considerations have helped to reconcile conservatives to the idea of same-sexmarriage. First, same-sexmarriage has the advantage that it spreads the benefits of marriage – such as family cohesion and social stability – more widely across society. Second, if the objections to same-sex marriage are largely rooted in religious belief, this does not rule out secular marriages, or what are called ‘civic unions’ or ‘domestic partnerships’. Third, neoliberal conservatives tend to view marriage as a contract made between two individuals, their gender being strictly irrelevant.
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