A few years ago, in a panel on same-sex marriage I shocked a lot of folk when I, a Black gay man, admitted that while I self-identify as gay and am wholly committed to fighting for the right to marry as an option of several, I am not a strong supporter of the same-sex marriage movement (emphasis on “movement”). But don’t pull my progressive rainbow coalition card just yet.
I begin with that confession to illuminate the obvious fact that LGBT people maintain diverse perspectives as it relates to same-sex marriage. Some of us maintain the view that the “institution of marriage” is a social construct-become-social fact created to preserve heteronormative (read, “traditional,” “normative,” “respectable,” “straight”) relational formations.
And if LGBT people think differently about same-sex marriage, it should be completely understandable if same-sex supporters, LGBT and heterosexual, hold different views regarding religious freedom.
According to the The Christian Post’s Napp Nazworth, “Supporters of same-sex marriage appear to increasingly hold the view that for gay rights to expand, religious freedom must shrink. Some same-sex marriage supporters, though, are pushing back against that trend.”
