A new law in the State of Virginia illustrates the growing Constitutional crisis in our country, a crisis brought about by the failure of both liberals and conservatives to grasp the concept of individual rights.
Virginia has passed into law something called the Marriage Affirmation Act. It went into effect this month. The law explicitly outlaws any notion of gay marriage or gay civil union; but it also goes much, much further. The law is written in such a way that any private contract between two individuals, such as a will, that can in any way be construed to validate a romantic association between two members of the same sex should be considered invalid under the law.
It was a huge and surprising victory for members of the religious right in Virginia’s state legislature, especially given that Virginia’s current governor is a left-leaning pragmatist Democrat who, while claiming to be against gay marriage or gay civil unions, acknowledges that this particular law went way too far.
The wording of the law can easily be interpreted to mean that if a man or a woman wills, for example, his or her estate to a member of the same sex, that will can immediately be invalidated (or at least easily contested) because of the perception created that this will is based upon a same-sex romantic relationship.
This issue is more than a dispute over gay rights and gay marriage. It has to do with the ability of religious individuals to impose their will on any members of the population who do not follow the precepts of their religion. It’s the beginning of the end of property rights in the state of Virginia, this time not because of leftward socialism but because of rightward religious theocracy. It’s a frightening prospect even if you are opposed to the concept of gay marriage because it’s a law that obliterates far more than gay marriage. More than the end of property rights, it also signals the decline of the separation of church and state–with bitter irony, in the state once home to Thomas Jefferson.
It’s important to understand that left wing gay rights groups are as much to blame for this state of affairs as the religious right. The left wing groups have been claiming for years that gay individuals enjoy not merely a right to the privacy of their own sexual and romantic relationships, but also a right to force businesses and private property owners to hire and rent/sell to them, whether they want to do so or not.
Chickens eventually come home to roost, and this is what’s happening now in Virginia. Overlooked by both sides of the issue are the principle of property rights–ignored by the left for decades–along with the principle of separation of church and state, ignored by the right for decades. The frightening thing is that the right now joins the left in its opposition to property rights. They merely disagree on whose property rights should be surrendered. Gay or straight, liberal or conservative — you could be next.
The solution? Fight for the absolutism of individual rights, including property rights. This means rejecting and condemning the religious elements of the Republican Party. It also means shunning the anti-property rights, socialistic elements of the Democratic Party.
If religious Christians want to be free not to associate with gay people, this is their right. If gay people want to be left free to form associations, wills and other forms of voluntary, legally upheld contracts among consenting adults, this is likewise their right. No other concept of equal rights is possible or fair. Until more understand this, the sacrifice of one’s rights to another will continue unabated, in Virginia and elsewhere.
