In a crowded auditorium, students, faculty, and seven panelists participated in a largely civil, yet active debate on a controversial issue: gay marriage.
“Straight Talk on Gay Marriage,” was held in Lee Hall Auditorium on Tuesday night. Opponents and supporters of same-sex marriage argued several religious and legal points.
Amanda Easley, a senior foreign language major, summarized the case for opponents of gay rights, saying, “Even if we could separate church and state, we cannot separate morals from the state.”
While the Bible says that homosexuality is a sin, Easley said it is important to consider legal ramifications of failing to define marriage.
Easley pointed out that if marriage was defined simply as two people in love, such as through civil union, the state would be unable to prevent granting marriage rights to three-or-four person couples, or people and animals.
“Marriage must be defined, or else it stands for nothing,” Easley said.
Trisha Buchanan, panelist and philosophy and religion department lecturer, said, “Fear of a slippery slope is no basis for denying equal rights,”
Gay couples could have equal rights while making a legal differentiation of two-person couples from non-consensual or multi-party relationships, Buchanan said.
Gay marriage proponents claimed that banning gay marriage denies homosexuals equal rights.
“Writing discrimination into our Constitution is something that many, even hard-line conservatives are opposed,” said Brandon Braud, a constituency outreach coordinator for the Human Rights Campaign, based in Washington D.C.
Bob McDonald, pastor of Starkville’s Emmanuel Baptist Church, based his case on Scripture from the book of Leviticus. He said homosexuality is seen by God as an abomination. He also emphasized that although people may sin, they can still receive forgiveness for their sins through faith in Jesus Christ.
“You can’t legislate morality, because everyone’s morals are a little different,” Braud said.
Gay marriage supporters argued that marriage is a government-sanctioned activity, with people able to obtain a marriage license from the local circuit clerk office without forcing or requiring a church to commit to holding any religious ceremony.
Jody Renaldo, executive director of the Jackson-based Equality Mississippi, said that to deny gay marriage was to legally deny homosexuals access to thousands of social and governmental marital benefits given to heterosexual couples. These benefits include pensions, medical rights, wills, trusts, legal adoption, and other contracts, Renaldo said.
Following the speakers’ presentations, the audience had an opportunity to ask questions or respond to comments made by members of the panel.
“Some of the panelists speak of scripture, history, law, the (U.S.) constitution, and precedent,” said Nick Goodman, a senior in computer science. “Yet, throughout the human experience, we have seen that none of these is absolute or absolutely correct. Tolerance, therefore, must be the basis of our actions and our laws.”
“I thought the forum went really well,” said Bryan Norwood, a freshman architecture major. “Everyone, for the most part, respected others’ rights to talk. I think it was overall very balanced, not as much on the moral side of the argument, but very well on the legal side.”