The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that stopped the proposed internet broadcasting of a trial on Proposition 8 (the California same-sex marriage ban passed by voters in 2008) that is being taken up in U.S. District Court of Northern California. Supporters of the broadcast saw it as a new way to educate the public. Opponents saw the broadcast as opening up the witnesses to harassment. This trial is testing whether proposition 8 is constitutional.
Meanwhile a two sided formal debate on the subject of same sex marriage is being held next week at Oregon State University on the 21st. Below is the press release from the OSU Socratic Club:
The question of gay marriage is one of the most hotly debated moral and cultural issues of our time. Should same-sex couples enjoy the same right to marry that heterosexual couples have? Is homosexual activity within a committed monogamous relationship truly marriage? Two nationally prominent speakers, who have appeared in many debates across the country on the subject of gay marriage, will present divergent points of view. Maggie Gallagher will argue that marriage between a woman and a man is the fundamental, cross-cultural institution for bridging the male-female divide so that children have loving, committed mothers and fathers. John Corvino will argue that marriage is a basic human right for everyone, an individual choice, and therefore something that same-sex couples should be able to experience and enjoy.
Speakers are Maggie Gallagher and John Corvino. Maggie Gallagher is a writer and commentator who serves as president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy and the National Organization for Marriage. She is the author of five books, including The Abolition of Marriage: How We Destroy Lasting Love; and (with Linda Waite) The Case for Marriage. She has written a syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate since 1995. John Corvino is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wayne State University, where he has taught ethical theory, applied ethics, and early modern philosophy since 1998. He is the editor of Same Sex: Debating the Ethics, Science, and Culture of Homosexuality. His writing has been featured in Between the Lines (Michigan’s GLBT weekly), in academic journals, and in over a dozen anthologies. The event is at 7 p.m. on Thursday, January 21, Austin Auditorium, LaSells Stewart Center , Oregon State University Corvallis.
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