Why Conservatives should vote Yes to same sex marriage
Modern political Conservatism was shaped by some of the greatest thinkers of the 18th and 19th Century. It is widely recognised that it began with Edmund Burke in Britain in the 1700s, but it was also informed by the classics of the Greek and Roman eras. What makes same sex marriage a natural ally to Conservatism lies in two of the key founding principles of Conservative thought. A belief in the primacy of Natural Law, and the importance of maintaining traditions and customs.
Support for the importance of traditions sometimes draws accusations that Conservatives are anti-progress. Clearly however, Conservatism is not a static movement and has evolved substantially within a changing society to remain a major political force today. Conservative belief sees tradition as having a role in navigating society through this constant change. Tradition and customs provide a record of where society has come from, and helps guide it through future change. By ensuring traditions adapt to the changing world, they maintain their relevance and avoid becoming lost to change.
Natural Law asserts that all humans have certain rights that are inherent in nature and do not have to be written into the laws of Government for them to be true. Central to these rights is the freedom to live, love, worship and benefit from your personal effort, as long as that doesnât involve preventing others from doing the same. The concept of Natural Law is widely recognised in Western legal systems. Conservatives see this as universal rights, reflected in a belief that regardless of your class or status in society, all people must be equal in the eyes of the law.
A hundred years ago, homosexual relationships were illegal throughout most of Western civilization (along with lots of other things that we would find strange today). As our society has developed, these laws have not stood the test of Natural Law because they interfered in the rights of otherwise law-abiding individuals to be free of the interference of others. Once a person or thing is found to be legal, then Conservative belief holds that it must become equal under the law with all else. In this is the foundation for Conservative acceptance of same sex partnerships. It is why the law now allows same sex couples to live together, raise families and share property.
Second to the case is the Conservative belief in maintaining traditions. Some say that same sex relationships threaten the tradition of marriage, but Conservative belief would reject the creation of any legal process that duplicates a tradition that has existed for centuries. Creating equal unions outside of marriage denies the value of traditional marriage and threatens to lessen its role in society.
The tradition of civil marriage (marriage under the law), has changed numerous times over the centuries of Conservative belief. Marrying for love rather than to secure property only started to become a popular idea in the 1800s and spread across societal classes through the first half of the 20th Century. It was not until the 1960s that restrictions on mixed race marriages disappeared, and not until the 1970s that men and women became equal in marriage under the law. Conservatives donât seek ways around tradition when these changes occur, rather they encourage whatever adaptation is required to maintain tradition.
This is why same-sex marriage recently passed the parliaments of our two closest cultural allies, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, both under Conservative Governments. David Cameron, the British Prime Minister at the time, declared âI donât support gay marriage despite being a Conservative, I support Gay Marriage because I am a Conservativeâ.
The anti-same sex marriage debate in Australia is being led by churches and Religious Conservatives rather than Political Conservatives. Religious Conservatives hold many of the same views as Political Conservatives but view Natural Law as coming from God, and this can place their churchesâ law at the heart of their moral code and above civil law.
The support of same sex marriage by the Left of politics also causes Reactionaries from the right to instinctively resist it. However, same sex marriage is no more a product of the Left of politics than of any other political belief, and most left-wing regimes throughout history have held homosexuality to be illegal. Yet many self-described Conservatives are preparing to ignore or reject their opportunity to right this inequality because it is being painted as a Left vs Right political battle.
Same sex marriage is not your everyday political problem such as taxes and Government spending, it is a question of legal rights; something Conservatives hold dear. Outlawing same sex marriage has a very large negative effect on the lives of a very small number of our friends, family and colleagues, and Australia remains on a shrinking list of advanced economies that continue to block same sex marriage. Conservatives have the opportunity to implement it now in a way which maintains the structures and traditions of their beliefs, or leave it to an inevitable Left-wing government at some future point to manage the change in their way.
