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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   1263 thread views

Transnational Thursday for January 23, 2025

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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If there’s really 96.6% public support, I’m just shocked it took this long.

That actually leads to a question that I wish would be asked more often -

Why isn't gay marriage the default?

There's an argument you sometimes hear from Western progressives that goes "there is literally no argument against it" - that is, gay marriage is so much of a no-brainer that failure to affirm it isn't even wrong so much as it is utterly nonsensical. If asked as to why it hasn't already been the case, a common answer is to blame Abrahamic religion and specifically Christianity. (Just above we see a variant of that answer.)

But if so, then why isn't gay marriage the historical default, and exclusive male-female marriage the weird aberration? Why haven't China or India had gay marriage for thousands of years? Why didn't the Persians, or the Mongols, or the Bantu, or the Mississippians? Suppose that poll is accurate - what's going on in Thailand, that not only did it not have gay marriage last year, but it also didn't have it for centuries?

Why isn't gay marriage the default?

Because most people aren't gay, and most gay activity doesn't naturally converge on consistent pair bonding as an eventual requirement (involuntary reproduction isn't a risk in gay relationships, obviously).

I don't think it's much more complex than that.

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