queerbychoice | Do You Take This Dog to Be Your Wedded Husband?

You know the old line the homophobes like to use about how if same-sex marriages are allowed, people marrying their pets will come next? Well, people have already married their pets, and it didn't happen in any of the most queer-friendly countries. According to the last line in this Reuters article about a grandmother and her grandson marrying each other, "Last June, a nine-year-old Indian girl was married to a dog near Calcutta after a priest told her parents the wedding would ward off evil."

The world didn't explode, either. And unlike most weddings involving nine-year-old brides, I really doubt that this one has inflicted any terrible harm on the nine-year-old girl - nor on the dog. The dog isn't likely to ever even realize it's married, and the girl will be widowed by the time she's grown up, and thereby free to marry a human next time around.

[Actually, she'd be free to marry a human anyway - my friend

oyarsa from India assures me that although Hindu priests have been known to marry people to trees as well, these wedding ceremonies have no legal standing and are just intended to ward off bad spirits.]

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and the girl will be widowed by the time she's grown up, and thereby free to marry a human next time around.

Is it wrong of me to find this hilarious?

I hope not. I haven't actually had enough training in the etiquette regarding child-canine marriages to be able to speak authoritatively on that question. You might try asking Miss Manners.

::The world didn't explode, either.::

GASP.

Surely this is some divinely-inspired miracle. The world should have burst into flames.

O.O

Yes, it's shocking yet clear proof that God approves of child-canine marriages. Especially in view of the fact that it was a priest who recommended the marriage.

Of course, it's not clear that this was a priest that was practicing within a monotheistic religion, so I'm not sure that he would have any special authority to say whether or not "God" approves of anything in particular.

I was figuring the priest was a Hindu priest, actually, in which case he believes in one primary God but not to the exclusion of others. But then, my comment was worded mainly with the goal of producing maximum horror in American Christians, so "God" seemed the most effective word to go with for that purpose.

I am not sure if I did enjoy the article, especially about the girl and the dog.

People like you are intelligent enough to think beyond that, but other Americans (majority, I am affraid) are so used to stereotype so much that they will start saying "See? India is such a backwards contry that allows this kind of things." And they won't look at the backwards things in their country.

Peace!

Pekky

I agree, which is also why I was trying to point out that the marriage actually seems quite unlikely to cause any harm. But also people need to be aware that it only seems to have happened once anyway - it's not as though it's a normal practice in India for girls to marry dogs!

The first time I came across that argument against same-sex marriages (that if it was allowed, people would start marrying their pets) was from my future brother-in-law. (Thankfully my fiance is very open-minded, and doesn't think like him) I found the argument so hilarious, I thought it was him clutching at straws trying to justify his stand. Then I started reading about it in other places, now it makes me uncomfortable. How do people use arguments like that as logical reasons to condemn something? Is this the intelligence level we as humans aspire to?

I think we should respond to all arguments like that by accusing the people of extreme sexism, since they apparently believe that members of their own sex are no more intelligent than their pets. ;-)

Do You Take This Dog to Be Your Wedded Husband?

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