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The Slippery Slope Never Ends

In 2006, then-Sen. Joe Biden ranted against the supposed irrelevance of a proposed constitutional amendment to define marriage in federal law as one man, one woman. “We already have a law, the Defense of Marriage Act,” he said. “I’ve voted, and others have said, look, marriage is between a man and a woman and states must respect that. Nobody’s violated that law, there’s been no challenge to that law. Why do we need a constitutional amendment? Marriage is between a man and a woman.”

Sixteen years later, President Joe Biden stood on the lawn of the White House and chortled that he had finally enshrined same-sex marriage into federal law. “Today’s a good day,” he said. “A day America takes a vital step toward equality, toward liberty and justice, not just for some, but for everyone.”

A vital step. Not the final step. Not the culminating step. A vital step.

The language here is important because it is revealing. Biden and his allies have an agenda that goes far beyond the redefinition of marriage. The agenda is simple: use of government to obliterate traditional values and intermediary social institutions that embody them.

Biden made this clear in his speech, in which he lumped together opposition to same-sex marriage with “racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia.” This is patent nonsense, of course. But it does set the groundwork for the actual transgressive agenda: to liken traditional views about marriage to pure bigotry. And this will necessitate governmental action against those who believe in marriage. After all, we as a society don’t tolerate racism on the basis of religious freedom. If Christian views about marriage are treated similarly, why should churches maintain their tax-exempt status while “discriminating” against same-sex weddings?

Biden went still further. In championing same-sex marriage, he said that Americans “need to challenge the hundreds of callous, cynical laws introduced in the states targeting transgender children, terrifying families and criminalizing doctors who get children the care they need.” In other words, if you oppose the hormonal sterilization and surgical mutilation of minors as a pseudo-palliative for gender identity disorder, you are evil, and you must be stopped by force of federal law.

The natural outcome of this agenda will be precisely what Democrats pretend now to oppose: anti-religious discrimination, educational cramdowns, threats to traditional parenting. And make no mistake: they are pretending. They have no rationale for drawing lines to hem in their cultural imperialism. When asked by CBS News correspondent Steve Portnoy whether protections for religious practice were “codifying discrimination,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre answered, “Is there more work to do? Absolutely. There’s always more work to do.”

In the early 1990s, Democrats denied that they wanted civil unions. They were lying. In the mid-2000s, Democrats denied that they wanted same-sex marriage. They were lying. Now Democrats say they don’t want religious discrimination or educational indoctrination. They are lying. In the end, what transgressives want is simple: a national state that stands as the god of a new moral system, and atomized individuals without recourse to intermediary institutions of community or civil society.

And if the Republicans who voted for the Orwellian Respect for Marriage Act think that they have bought a respite from the predations of the Left by signing onto an erstwhile compromise, they will soon learn the error of their ways.

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Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro, 37, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of "The Ben Shapiro Show," and editor-in-chief of DailyWire.com. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers "How To Destroy America In Three Easy Steps," "The Right Side Of History," and "Bullies."

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One Comment

  1. The primary reason that Roe vs. Wade was overturned is that the Supreme Court said that abortion was not a Federal Government issue but up to the states and their respective legislators to decide. It was neither a pro or anti abortion decision. So here we go again with 47 House Republicans and 12 Republican Senators supporting the Democrat bill that the definition of Marriage is up to the Federal government to codify. Soon it will be who gets to use a men’s or women’s bathroom should be a Federal government issue. Just stop it. They should be focusing on stopping the RHINO supported Omnibus spending bill that essentially allows the government to continue their out of control money printing with no accountability that is driving inflation and bankrupting the middle class in America.

    Not to mention that this bill will open the door for unlimited lawsuits against religious and Christian individuals and groups that don’t support the ultra liberal ideology; such as the Christian baker who didn’t want to bake a cake for a gay wedding or the “The Little Sisters of the Poor” Catholic nuns being forced to accept HHS mandates on providing birth control or even force people to accept that biological sex is just a “mental construct”. Then as Shapiro notes, at the White House “celebration” the President goes on an angry rant saying that any states that want to make laws against the sexual castration or mutilation of children are against “gender affirmation”. I guess that’s what they want to codify next. It’s absurd. The Federal government has no business legislating issues of personal conscience or religious conviction.

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