Discriminatory Laws and Bigotry

I am embroiled in what many may consider to be the most dangerous and most interesting of online discussions. Actually, to be fair, I stuck my nose into a conversation between two boyhood friends, one of whom is active in the establishment and maintenance of universal civil rights and the other an elected official.
The arena is Indiana State politics. The topic is equal marriage rights for same-gender couples.

In the Indiana House, two recent bills have sparked considerable controversy. The first was a potential law that defined marriage exclusively, as being between one man and one woman. This supposed "Biblical Model" was supported by a minority of congressional representatives and failed. The second bill was an attempt to legalize an inclusive definition of marriage, one that codifies the marriage of same-gender couples. That bill also lacked majority support. It failed.

My political friend and my civil rights friend were on different sides of both the aisle and the fence. They promoted opposing views. (It is not perhaps incidental that one is gay and the other straight.) Frankly, I saw only one side of the argument being promoted through my social media account. My "friends" tended to discuss the issue from a single perspective.

Unfortunately, in the course of the discussion, those who opposed the inclusive definition of marriage, who voted for the initial bill and against the latter, were called "bigots." One of my old friends asked the other if all who oppose same-gender marriage rights are bigots. Is the word "bigot" a fair descriptor of all who stand for the traditional definition of marriage?

Again unfortunately, the answer was "yes." All who oppose an inclusive definition of marriage are practicing the same king of bigotry that America has seen in racial and gender civil rights movements. Opposition to equal rights for any segment of the society is bigotry. According to my office copy of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, bigotry is: "...obstinate and unreasoning attachment to one's own belief and opinions with intolerance of beliefs opposed to them or the behavior or beliefs ensuing from such a condition."

Is it bigotry to cling to traditional, exclusive definitions of marriage and marriage rights? Perhaps. But my issue here, and the reason that I stuck my nose into the discussion, is that it is not particularly helpful to call persons with opposing views any name, especially a pejorative one, like "bigot." I suggested, instead, that we might learn to understand the tendency to cling to discriminatory laws as discriminatory practice. We can all agree, I think, that discrimination against any segment of the culture is wrong and that laws that promote such discrimination should be changed. If we learn to free ourselves from the need to call names, I firmly believe that we can achieve, to a higher degree, change and progress. We can evolve, culturally and spiritually.

Interesting, though, isn't it that much of this discussion has taken place in the context of celebration of black history? There are some interesting parallels to be drawn, I think. Someday, maybe, we will learn.