The Deseret News published an article on pornography and same-sex marriage that’s taking some heat. Not surprising. It’s also not surprising that the author of the study cited is none other than Mark Regnerus, who’ has also taken some heat recently.
Regnerus summarized the problem of pornography as one that “presses its consumers…away from sex as having anything approaching a ‘marital meaning’ or structure…” and referenced a quote that states marriage is about “sharing one’s body and whole self in the way best suited for honorable parenthood…permanently and exclusively”. So, let’s make the his point clear: pornography is a problem because it focuses on temporary, non-monogamous relationships rather than permanent and exclusive relationships.
I think this is something a lot of people agree on. We don’t like pornography because of what it portrays and what it might encourage people to do. It makes some sense. And the author even admits to the fact that pornography on the web is broad. In fact, he called it a “veritable fire-hose dousing of sex-act diversity” that includes “alternative forms of sexual activity”.
And then he makes the jump from ‘porn is bad’ to ‘porn causes you to support same-sex marriage — the more you watch, the more gays you want to see marry.” Yep. Porn is horrible because it encourages people away from conventional sex acts of exclusivity and permanence toward supporting permanent and exclusive relationships.
That makes perfect sense.
PS. Commenters on the Deseret New site noted that residents of Utah are the number one consumers of online pornography in the nation. Yet it’s probably the only state unanimously against same-sex marriage (just Google “Proposition 8”).