[1]NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–The majority of homosexuals are opposed to same-sex “marriage” and a few want to see the institution of marriage abolished altogether, according to an online poll of a homosexual-themed Canadian magazine.
The results of the Fab Magazine poll, published April 7 in the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper, found that only 36 percent of respondents believed homosexuals should “settle for marriage and nothing less.” A plurality, 47 percent, favored civil unions.
The poll, while not scientific, is significant because it took place in a country where three provinces have legalized same-sex “marriage.”
Fab Magazine editor-in-chief Mitchel Raphael said the results may reflect a rejection of monogamous relationships by homosexuals.
“Fear exists in the gay community that marriage will be used as means to clean up its overt, institutionalized sex culture,” Raphael wrote in a Globe and Mail editorial. “There are practical reasons for gays to adopt a different and equal partnership model. It is not uncommon for gay men, for instance, to discuss whether a relationship should be monogamous.”
The poll also found that 11 percent of respondents said homosexuals should refuse “to buy into the heterosexist, oppressive institution of marriage” and 7 percent said homosexuals should “help lead a movement to abolish the institution of marriage.”
[2]“Even gay-sex radicals, proud to say they will never wed, have taken up the cause of gay marriage as a reaction to homophobic political/religious rhetoric,” Raphael wrote. “Ironically, if conservatives, including many Liberals, stopped fueling the fire, many flamers might be happy with a different-and-equal partnership arrangement.
“Choosing a new term for same-sex couples uniting means gays can create their own rules for partnership with all the rights of traditional marriage but without its baggage of eternal monogamy and 50 percent divorce rates.”
Raphael backs same-sex “marriage” for political reasons but sees nothing wrong with civil unions.
“I have no problem drinking from a different water fountain,” Raphael wrote, alluding to civil unions. “If straights want to guzzle from the traditional aluminum basin, I am more than happy to sip from a crystal waterspout.”
The poll and column seem to support anecdotal evidence in recent months showing that homosexual men are unlikely to seek marriage licenses. In San Francisco, 57 percent of the homosexual “marriages” that took place were by females, only 42 percent by males.
The New York Times last August reported that homosexuals in Canada are not rushing to tie the knot. The debate “pits those who celebrate a separate and flamboyant way of life as part of a counterculture against those who long for acceptance into the mainstream,” the story noted.
The story followed two men in their 40s, David Andrew and David Warren, who have lived together for seven years.
Although the men promise to protect one another, the story said “they stop short of monogamy, which is something Mr. Andrew also says he does not believe in.”
–30–
For more information about the debate over same-sex “marriage,” visit
http://www.bpnews.net/samesexmarriage [3]