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Your Arguments Are Invalid: Gay Marriage

2012-05-11 · Hank · watch on YouTube · US politics & society · advocacy activism

Responding to North Carolina's constitutional ban on gay marriage, Hank rebuts common arguments against it (religion, the Bible, 'undermining marriage', 'unnatural') and argues that the only argument that matters is equality under the law.

What is said

00:00:00 — North Carolina bans gay marriage in its constitution; Hank: not a political issue but treating citizens unequally

  • ★★★ Hank reports that North Carolina, where the brothers' parents live, has just outright banned gay marriage by writing it into its constitution. — 00:00:06
  • ★★★ Hank says opposing gay marriage is a viewpoint he does not understand; it is not a political issue but treating some citizens differently from others, which is wrong. — 00:00:14
  • ★ Hank expects the video to anger people but says he no longer cares. — 00:00:17

00:00:27 — Arguments one and two: 'what's the big deal' and God/religious freedom; the Bible is not a legal document

  • ★★ Argument one, 'why can't gay people just have a party and say they're committed?', is irrelevant to Hank: if some people can marry and others can't, that is wrong. — 00:00:30
  • ★★★ Against the religious argument, Hank says marriage can be religious or secular and not everyone shares a religion; banning gay marriage is religious oppression, not religious freedom. — 00:00:45
  • ★★ Hank says the Bible is not a legal document and the US was founded on the separation of church and state. — 00:01:09
  • ★★ Hank notes the Bible is also explicit about rules for farmers selling their daughters as slaves, so it is maybe not the best basis for laws. (hedged) — 00:01:15

00:01:23 — 'Gay marriage would undermine marriage' as a 'hypothetheory': an untested hypothesis stated as fact

  • ★★★ Hank coins 'hypothetheory': a hypothesis (e.g. 'gay marriage would undermine marriage') asserted as established theory without the testing step in between. — 00:01:23 > «I'm calling them hypothetheories.»
  • ★★ Hank says the opposite hypothesis, that not letting people who love each other marry undermines marriage, is just as valid, being equally untested; so stop stating it as truth. — 00:01:58

00:02:11 — 'It's unnatural': people want hard lines on gender and orientation, but complexity is natural and the world is gray

  • ★★ Hank says the biggest actual complaint is that gay marriage feels unnatural; he thinks people build their world's rules and want sharp lines on gender and sexual orientation in a gray world. (hedged) — 00:02:19
  • ★★★ Hank calls it idiotic to say that simplicity is natural: complexity is the most natural thing, and gender and sexual orientation are shown again and again not to be firm lines. — 00:02:52 > «the most natural thing in the world is complexity»
  • ★★ Hank says the whole world is gray and beautiful if appreciated; fighting that makes you bitter and makes other people's lives less awesome, which is what this comes down to. — 00:03:05

00:03:22 — The one argument that matters: equality in the eyes of the law; North Carolina and 30 other states should check themselves; sign-off

  • ★★★ For Hank only one argument about gay marriage matters: all people in the country should be equal in the eyes of the law. — 00:03:31
  • ★★ Hank says 30 other US states besides North Carolina have passed laws like this one. — 00:03:37
  • ★★ Hank tells North Carolina and those states to check themselves: Americans can't live in a society like that. — 00:03:37

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