Same-sex Semantics

A constitutional law professor at the University of California at Davis argues that “Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty” are “Coexistent Rights.” “What is most tragic about Proposition 8 is that it will make it even harder for people to understand that instead of being seen as inconsistent values, religious liberty and gay and lesbian rights should be understood to reinforce each other,” Alan Brownstein writes in the June 2009 issue of Liberty, which is published by the Seventh Day Adventists.

“Certainly many religious people believe that homosexual relationships violate the tenets of their faith and are concerned that a decision by the state to permit same-sex couples to marry legitimates conduct that they believe to be immoral,” Brownstein admits. “There is no doubt that our society is divided on this moral issue.”

Actually, the most apparent division in the Proposition 8 vote was between San Francisco and Beverly Hills on the one side and everyone else on the other. “Talks a lot,” one of Brownstein’s students writes on the professor’s ratemyprofessors.com page. “Says very little.”

That wouldn’t make him out of place in academia.

Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.

Malcolm A. Kline
Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia. If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail contact@academia.org.