Why I Oppose Gay Marriage Mainwaring Analysis

Why I Support Gay Marriage Doug Mainwaring’s September 21 editorial for the Washington Post, entitled “Why I oppose Gay Marriage” is a gay marriage opinion piece unlike many others. Mainwaring opens his piece explaining how a past Maryland petition opposing gay marriage has recently been brought back into the spotlight. The names of the people who had signed said petition were released, much to the shock of the general public, who were in awe to see the names of friends, neighbors, and family members in opposition of gay marriage. Mainwaring goes on to argue that because “Only a little more than 53%” of the signers were Republican, and the rest an assortment of parties, gay marriage is a “common, mainstream concern”, to be shared among citizens of all backgrounds.
He says that “the vast majority simply view ‘marriage’ as an immutable term that can only apple to heterosexuals”, and that “’we’ shouldn’t mess with [the term marriage]”. I mentioned before that Mainwaring’s opinion on this topic is considerably unique. This is because he himself is, in fact, gay. It was not only the fact that Mainwaring decided to mention this, but also the juxtaposition of this statement that was mildly infuriating to me. To me, placing the fact that he is gay directly after his statements defending the people who signed the petition is a bit like an African-American saying “I think blacks should be subject to a lower standard of living than whites…and it’s okay for me to think this because I’m black!” If a black person were to say this today, this would be considered socially unacceptable from nearly every person in this country, and it should be the same for Mainwaring and all other