SCANDINAVIAMANIA: Stanley Kurtz replies to critics

webcast of Kurtz's testimony before the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee
testimony here

...Meantime, Andrew Sullivan has posted entries here and here attempting to rebut my Scandinavia argument. Sullivan draws on the work of Darren Spedale, a lawyer who studied gay marriage in Denmark on a Fulbright scholarship. Nathaniel Frank, who wrote the critique of my work for The New Republic, is an expert on sexual minorities in the military. Here's my response to the critics.

MUTUAL REINFORCEMENT
The critics say I show only correlation--not a causal connection--between Scandinavian registered partnerships and marital decline. Supposedly, I confuse cause and effect. But it's the folks who say gay marriage could be only an effect of marital decline--without also being a cause--who are confused.

Gay marriage, and other contributors to marital decline, are mutually reinforcing. ...

The critics ignore my core claims about how gay marriage undermines marriage. I show that registered partnerships are not understood in a "conservative" light by the public. Instead of treating de facto gay marriage as an affirmation of the importance of marriage, the public sees this change as proof that traditional marriage is no better than any other family form. And this culturally radical interpretation of gay marriage is as prevalent in the Netherlands (where we now have formal gay marriage) as in Scandinavia. Since the public sees gay marriage as powerful proof that all family forms are equal, gay marriage reinforces marital decline.

A NEW STAGE OF MARITAL DECLINE
The critics ignore another key aspect of my causal argument. Gay marriage is part and parcel of a whole new stage of marital decline--a stage still relatively unfamiliar in the United States. In this new stage of marital decline, couples don't just cohabit before they become parents. Couples cohabit even after they become parents. Because gay marriage helps to break apart the ideas of marriage and parenthood, it is closely associated with this advanced stage of marital decline. ...

CONTRADICTORY CLAIMS
Not only do Sullivan, Spedale, and Frank completely ignore this aspect of my causal framework, the three of them take utterly contradictory positions on a supposedly fatal flaw in my case. Writing in The New Republic, Frank says that since Scandinavia has only "registered partnerships," the Scandinavian case "has literally nothing to do with same-sex marriage." Trouble is, Sullivan himself, writing in the same magazine in 2001, touted Spedale's work on "de facto gay marriage" in Denmark as proof that gay marriage is harmless. The first sentence of Spedale's current reply to me reads, "Since 1989, gay marriage has been a reality in Scandinavia." ...

The remarkable thing about Darren Spedale's reply to my work is that, without realizing it, he actually makes my causal case. Overtly, Spedale denies that Scandinavian gay marriage has had any negative impact on "the sanctity of marriage." If anything, says Spedale, gay marriage has actually strengthened Scandinavian marriage. Trouble is, Spedale's work is a celebration of the decline of Scandinavian marriage. Spedale doesn't deny that Scandinavian parents have stopped getting married. His real point is that parental cohabitation is just great. ...

THE MENTALITY OF MARITAL DECLINE
But the truly remarkable thing about Spedale's "rebuttal" is that it actually makes my causal argument. According to Spedale, Scandinavian gay marriage is a product of "increasing respect for diverse family structures." Sure. But doesn't gay marriage then breed further acceptance of "diverse family structures"--like the parental cohabitation of which Spedale is so enamored? Apparently so, since Spedale himself keeps saying that the approval of gay marriage has garnered ever increasing public support for the idea of family change. ...

...While advocates like Sullivan argue that marriage isn't about children, Nathaniel Frank takes the opposite approach. Since some gays have children, says Frank, formal gay marriage would unite--not separate--the ideas of marriage and parenthood. ...

You can see the process playing out now in Sweden, which is on the verge of turning its system of registered partnerships into formal gay marriage. The big step on that road came in 2002, when Sweden removed that last real difference between registered partnerships and marriage by allowing gay partners to adopt. Has that move brought the ideas of marriage and parenthood closer together?

Not at all. The National Swedish Social Insurance Board recently convened a panel in which two legal experts recommended changes in Swedish family law. One invoked same-sex parenting to argue for legal recognition of three- and even four-parent families. According to this scholar, the antiquated two-parent standard virtually forces lesbian couples to find anonymous sperm donors, rather than form a more complex family with, say, gay sperm donors to whom they feel close.

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posted by Eve at 4:44 PM VOTE

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