On Thursday, October 22nd, I attented the Oxford Debate: Gay Marriage vs. Traditional Marriage, in the NVC room. This debate caught my eye the first day i saw the advertisement on the bulletin board in the hall. I was so interested in attending it because I know there are a lot of debates over this controversial issue and I wanted to see where people stand. The debate began with a speech by a woman who recently came out to her parents and friends and explained how difficult it is for her to be accepted. After her speech, a history professor, who is for gay marriage, spoke out about his feelings towards it and quoted a passage in the constitution. He explained that if two people love each other than who are we to tell them they cant get married. After his speech, a student began his speech about his views towards keeping everything the way it is. He is for traditional marriage and explained that if we allow gay marriage, then who knows what will come next. He brought up a metaphor about how if a man loved his cat then what’s stopping him from marrying that cat? It sounds silly, but he brought up a point because who’s to say that we wont have a father wanting to marry his daughter if we allowed gay marriage? It wont stop at there because as long as its “love” then they are allowed to marry. A priest spoke after this student and said the same and explained that in the bible, marriage is defined as a bond by a man and a woman. A few more speakers spoke, and at the end of all the speeches, they passed around papers in which you had to vote which one you are for. After everyone voted, the votes were counted and most of the votes went for gay marriage.
This was a really interesting debate because I learned stuff that I had never even thought of before. I got to see both sides of the argument and got a chance to really listen to the way people felt towards this issue. This was definitely one of my favorite workshops.