Alan Keyes & Barack Obama Illinois Senate debate 2004: Homosexuality & Marriage

During the 2004 Illinois senate debate, Alan Keyes spoke on the nature of homosexuality and the irrelevance of the recognition thereof by government. A transcript of his statement follows:

“Where procreation is–in principle–impossible, marriage is irrelevant and not needed. The word ‘in principle’ means ‘relating to the definition of’; not relating to particular circumstances. If an apple has a worm in it, that does not change the definition of the apple. It retains the qualities which make it such. Humans reason by means of concepts and definitions. We also make laws by means of definitions. If you don’t know how to operate with respect for those definitions, you can’t make a law. An individual who is impotent or another who is infertile does not change the definition of marriage, in principle, because between a man and a woman–in principle–procreation is always possible. It is that possibility which gave rise to the institution of marriage in the first place, as a matter of roles in society. But when it is impossible–as between two males or two females–you’re talking about something that’s not just incidentally impossible. It’s impossible in principle. That means that if you say that this is a ‘marriage,’ you are saying marriage can be understood–in principle–apart from procreation. You have changed its definition in such a way as in fact to destroy the necessity for the institution, since the only reason it has existed in human societies and civilizations was to regulate, from a social point of view, the obligations and responsibilities attendant upon procreation. So when you start playing games in this way, you are actually acting as if the institution has no basis independent of your own arbitrary whim.”