The Slippery Slope is a Rollercoaster


The Slippery Slope is a Rollercoaster

One of the standard arguments against gay marriage -- and the only one that's other than "we don't like it" -- is that it's a slippery slope to pedophilia and bestiality and other obviously bad behaviours. Let's take a quick look at that. Below is a chart of how the laws on gay marriage and legality of sex with animals has changed in Europe over the last 25 years.

If there's any slippery slope in this picture, it's towards more ethical behaviours.

Data from Wikipedia (though I didn't dig in enough to see if there were some changes before the most recent change). For countries that didn't have data, I assumed bestiality is legal and gay marriage isn't.

Comments

  1. Lars Clausen24 May 2015 at 14:24

    Until recently, bestiality was legal in Denmark as long as the animal was
    not harmed, which indeed animal protection laws should cover as well.

    It's only an interesting comparison because it's such a common argument
    against gay marriage. I'd there was a slippery slope, bestiality laws would
    be moving in the opposite direction. The argument is now clearly bogus.

    ReplyDelete
  2. David de Kloet25 May 2015 at 01:13

    It's difficult to know for sure if the animal is harmed so it's probably good it's illegal as an extra safe guard, but if the animal really isn't harmed in any way (physical or otherwise) what is really the problem?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lars Clausen26 May 2015 at 07:33

    David de Kloet​ That's a big if, and one could argue the same way for legalising paedophilia. In neither case is it possible to have informed consent.

    ReplyDelete

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