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Vanessa Boehme-Martinez

Pols 2300-351
03/26/18
Liberal vs Conservative Thinker: Same-Sex Marriage

Same-sex marriage was legalized in the United States on June 26, 2015. This was a

monumental moment for the United States and the world because they acknowledged the fact

that same-sex couples do exist and put them on the same playing field for once. In ​Ideals and

Ideologies A Reader​ there are many authors and philosophers that would have different views

and opinions about the legalization of gay marriage. In this paper I am going to talk about two

contrasting opinions; liberalism and conservatism.

Liberalism:

Of course when all of the excerpts from the book about liberalism were written they

could not even imagine or talk about the legalization of gay marriage. However, I think that if

many of the authors were around today they would have agree and be on the side of gay rights

and gay marriage. To start off the word liberty is derived from a Latin word ​liber ​which means

“free”. With this being the basis of most liberal arguments it would stand to reason that liberals

or liberal thinkers would be on the side of gay marriage because that means that everyone is free

and no one is being denied rights. “Liberals see themselves as champions of individual liberty

who work to create or preserve an open and tolerant society-a society whose members are free to

pursue their own ideas and interests with as little interference as possible.” (Dagger, Ball,

O’Neill. Ideals and Ideologies).

One liberal thinker and author that I think would definitely Agree with the legalization of

gay marriage is John Stuart Mill. In his excerpt ​On Liberty ​he talks about how the government
and society should control or determine what a person chooses to do or how they act. “The

principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in

interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number…” (John Stuart Mill, pg. 98) He then

goes on to talk about the role of government, authority, and individual liberty. Like I mentioned

above I think that even though gay marriage was not even a thought when most pieces on

liberalism were written in the book, many of them would be for the legalization of gay marriage.

Conservatism:

On the other side of the political spectrum, conservatism or conservative thinkers try to

conserve their way of life. “Conservatives, share a desire to conserve something-usually

traditions or customary way of life in their societies.” ( Dagger, Ball, O’Neill. Ideals and

Ideologies). Because gay marriage was not a tradition nor a customary way of life, I think many

conservative thinkers would be against gay marriage for the simple fact that it is not a social

“norm” or socially accepted.

Many of the conservative readings in the book were all about preserving the way of life

as it was in the moment. For example, Joseph De Maistre, wrote a piece about the French

Revolution and why he was against it. To translate that to modern day society or gay marriage

would mean that Maistre would be against it because it was/is not deemed as “normal” by

society. It is also changing the way that people think of marriage and relationships, which would

be unacceptable to conservative thinkers of that time.

Lastly, I do think that many of the people who were liberals or conservatives of a past

time would have a hard time dealing with the fact that gay marriage was legalized. However, I
think liberal thinkers would come to accept it because of their principles, values, and definitions

of individual liberty and freedom.


Bibliography:

Ball, Terence, et al. ​Ideals and Ideologies: a Reader​. Routledge, Taylor Et Francis Group, 2017.

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