Last Saturday Takeshi Kitano1 openly made fun of U.S. President Obama for coming out in favor of gay marriage. He went so far to say that if same-sex marriage were legalized, then human-animal marriage should also be permissible. I missed last weekend's episode of 7 Days Newscaster, but it was reported in great detail on 愛と苦悩の日記, including some of the reactions from the other commentators on the show.
Mr. Obama seems to support same-sex marriage. This means he will support the marriage with an animal at the end, doesn't it?
-- Takeshi Kitano
Takeshi is no stranger to controversy, but this argument strikes me as outdated. This was the same argument used in many English versions of the Christian Bible. If same-sex marriage were legalized, soon people would be marrying cattle, chairs, rocks, and even the Earth itself. This sort of action would enable all sorts of people "possessed with demons" to engage in acts that are in direct violation of all that is good. This was the very same argument my last Catholic priest2 used to argue the point in the late 1990s and rally the congregation into interfering with two people's lives who had nothing to do with the church until that couple felt the need to pack up and move.
Some of the back and forth between Takeshi Kitano and guest Watanabe Eri can be read on the link above, including this intelligent little tidbit:
But let's think about a gay couple who adopt a child. If two married men raise a child, how will the child be raised? Whay do you think about it? [...] However, the child will be bullied by saying, your mother is a father.
Children are teased for everything. Every. Single. Thing. We can no more protect children from being teased about things beyond their control than we can control what co-workers whisper about us behind our back. I was the fattest kid in elementary school and teased for it daily. I learned to cope with it. There were four non-Caucasians in my high school worked their ass off to fit in as best they could, ignoring the taunts and slander that came with being "different".
This is part of growing up. It's a very ugly part of growing up ... but a very important part, nonetheless.
I am Canadian. My wife Japanese. Does this mean that we should not have children because our ハーフ kids will be openly teased in school? We know they'll be teased, and the kids aren't even born yet.
Takeshi Kitano used to be someone I respected for his work and comedy. His ignorant comments on same-sex marriage has put a very dark tarnish on that image. We're all entitled to our opinions. But there's a time and place for them to be shared. A weekly news summary aired across the country is not that place.
