Do Homosexuals have Unequal Rights?

Joe Carter has garnered quite a few comments regarding his post on homosexual and polygamous marriages. I love reading thru the comments and seeing how he responds to those that disagree with him.

Joe notes to one commenter (BCB), "No, homosexuals are allowed to marry also. What they are unable to do is marry someone of the same sex. In that respect they are no different than polygamists."

Commenter BCB responds at 4:13 p.m. on February 6th by saying, "This is exactly the argument that I expected to hear. The way it seems to work is that homosexuals have the exact same right to marry as do heterosexuals, but they just choose not to exercise it because of their sexual preference.

Here's a thought experiment. Suppose that in response to a push for ending the notion of separate but equal that allowed racial school segregation to flourish, opponents pointed to the existence of a little white pill that when taken would turn black kids into white kids. Thus, black kids have a right to go to the same schools as whites, but they just choose not to use it because they won't take the little white pill. Using this logic, you would have to reject cases like Brown and segregation would still prevail (something I suspect that you all would rather like in your heart of hearts--however black they may be)."

BCB has taken the time to actually answer Joe's factual assertion with a thought experiment so let's examine the two situations and see if BCB's thought experiment works.

Person- A heterosexual male
Right - To marry a single, consenting, of consenting age female who is not closely related

Person - A homosexual male
Right - To marry a single, consenting, of consenting age female who is not closely related

(Different sexual preferences but the exact same right)

Person - A white student
Right - To attend an all-white school

Person - A black student
Right - To attend an all-black school

(Different races and different rights)

BCB's thought experiment fails because the students in the era of segregation didn't have the same rights while homosexuals have the exact same rights that heterosexuals do. In the thought experiment, the black student would have to change (become white) to get the same rights (to attend an all-white school) as the white student while the homosexual man doesn't need to change to get the same right as the heterosexual man. He already has the same right and doesn't need to change to exercise that right. The homosexual man doesn't like the right he has as much as the heterosexual male does (understandably so) but that doesn't mean that those rights aren't exactly the same. The homosexual man is asking for a new right - the right to marry someone of the same sex, a right that no one has.

Here's another thought experiment - say Bob and George both live in Michigan. The Michigan legislature passes a law saying that men who reside in Michigan are only allowed to marry women who were born in Michigan (to keep those pesky girls from Ohio from stealing good Michigan men). This works great for Bob whose fiance was born in Detroit but George is gravely upset because his fiance is from Toledo.

Does George have less rights than Bob? No. He has the exact same rights but he doesn't like those rights as much (understandably so) as Bob does but how George likes his rights doesn't change the fact that the rights are exactly the same.