Photography: David Goehring
Everyone’s favourite Telegraph blogger, Cristina Odone has written an article explaining that she’s not a hateful bigot. If that sounds to you a bit like “I’m not a sexist/racist/homophobe but…” then you need look no further for that “but” than the article’s headline:
[I'm not a hateful bigot but...] Why should gay couples get such special treatment?
Yeah, why should those pesky gay couples get that really special treatment of equal human rights? When will they just get over their “victimhood”? I’m glad she so quickly goes on to clarify that she’s definitely not a hateful bigot, cos otherwise I might have misinterpreted that headline.
Entirely unbigoted Odone then likens homosexuality to all the other “licentious behaviour” she disapproves of: statutory rape, bigamy, adultery and paedophilia. Because all of these things are clearly very similar to a loving marriage between consenting adults who aren’t hurting anyone else.
After comparing homosexuality to “affairs between wealthy ageing men and pretty Lolitas”, Odone closes with this reassurance: “The rules that regulate what happens in the bedroom may seem perverse or petty, but they don’t single out one particular group for special censure. They try to help the majority deal with the deceptive nature of sexual encounters. Would-be gay marrieds, you are not alone.”
Speaking of singling out, there’s one question that’s been bugging me throughout this article: why should straight, married people like Cristina Odone get such special treatment?
Odone might not like homosexuality (that’s what we call ‘homophobia’) but her comparisons are way off the mark. Not only that, but they’re hateful and they’re bigoted. If anything, gay marriage is most like… erm, well, marriage.
Like many hateful bigots Odone seems to believe that marriage, rather than being a human right, is some kind of “special treatment”. One term that gets bandied about a lot, although Odone doesn’t explicitly use it, is “the sanctity of marriage”, as if heterosexuals like Britney Spears (married for 2 days) and Kim Kardashian (72 days) are somehow protecting this “special” institution and it’s gay couples who would make a mockery of it.
For Odone, marriage is a “special treatment” which should be reserved for her, and for other couples whose sex life she approves of, but certainly not for those “licentious” gays. If she wishes to prove she’s not a hateful bigot, as she claims, I’d advise keeping her nose out of consenting adults’ bedrooms and remember that neither she, nor the church, own marriage.
To be fair, if she hates adultery she probably hates divorcees too right? Oh no, wait… Divorce might concern her marriage or the marriage of someone she loves one day, so she’d better not look like a hypocrite if that ever happens.
I also couldn’t believe my eyes when she likened gay marriage to statutory rape. Two consenting adults wanting to get married is NOT the same as a 15 year old girl/boy consenting to have sex with a 17 year old boy/girl. It’s almost like she thinks gay people need to be legally protected from themselves, and my response to that is “WHY?”.
Good blog though =]
Thank you
“It’s almost like she thinks gay people need to be legally protected from themselves” – yes, exactly! But that’s definitely not because she’s a hateful bigot.
Good points raised here! I like your mention of “the sanctity of marriage” it’s such a farce! Look at all these celebrity marriages that are a mockery of this. Doesn’t Vegas have drive through wedding chapels? It’s obvious that the “sanctity of marriage” is just a way of dressing up peoples prejudice as something greater than it actually is.
I cannot wait until we’re over this whole thing and people like Odone are mocked relentlessly for their bigotry and closed-mindedness as opposed to paid to spout their bullshit in mainstream news channels, and we are all laughing about that ridiculous time when it wasn’t legal for gay people to marry.
She does touch on a good point about the arbitrariness of sexual consent laws. But not in the way that I think she means to. There is debate to be had about why we consider two 16 years olds having sex together perfectly reasonable, but not two 15 year olds; how do we define this ‘age of consent’ and why oh why are we not teaching consent in schools?! Lots to be said, although maybe now is not the time!
I’m not a bitch but she’s f-ing horrible. (See what I did there?)
It’s typical blinkered privileged thinking. Odone may be rather distressed to know that her attitude is really no better than that of the man I met on the train recently who told me that it’s all the “darkies” who get the special treatment nowadays, but it really isn’t. Bigotry is bigotry, hatred is hatred, ignorance is ignorance.