1.3 Personal Relationships

1.3 Personal Relationships

Sexual orientation, preference, gender, or gender identity should have no impact on the rights of individuals by government, such as in current marriage, child custody, adoption, immigration or military service laws. Consenting adults should be free to choose their own sexual practices and personal relationships. Government does not have the authority to define, license or restrict personal relationships.

This is another area where we really need to understand that the Libertarian party is not condoning any ones actions, nor condemning them either. The platform simply, and accurately (in most cases), states that the law is silent on this issue and it goes on to say the government has no legitimate reason to interfere with people personal choices.

This is clear and easy to understand. I think that's sometimes the problem. I believe people have become so used to double talk, called nuance, that they now expect it. When they see a simple answer they are suspicious. I understand this urge to think that big problems often have complex solutions. A simple solution, more often than not, overlooks the details.

The failure here is to believe that the ability to express the party's principles so succinctly implies it is incomplete. In fact, the exact opposite is true. The Libertarian Platform is highly distilled thought. The crafters have expertly peeled away the chaff that clutters the platforms, and the minds, of the other parties.

It is a fallacy to think that every issue should be addressed in a platform, that would be a policy. The platform exists to give the party a stable mental foundation from which to reach out to new voters as well as to project power in the form of legislation, candidates and votes. By keeping the platform planks clear and understandable the party better enables itself to remain consistent and to explain itself to prospective members.

This is the key, we must explain it! Politics is a man to man sport. We have to take care when discussing our ideas with others that they get the full measure of it. The Libertarian planks fit together in a tongue and grove fashion such that while each stands on its own, they are much stronger taken as a whole. It is not enough to say to someone "The Libertarian party believes the government has no place in the bedroom", to put a fairly common modern spin on the argument regarding same sex marriages, ect.

We need to be able to stand and say things like "I don't condone homosexuality, indeed, I believe it is disgusting. But I refuse to use the power of the state to impose my feelings on someone else with the actions taken by those other people do not impact others." I have yet to see a non-traditional relationship pose any sort of violent or fraudulent threat to those outside the relationship. It does pose a moral or aesthetic one, depending on your views of those things, but those things are outside the preview of the government.

To be successful we need to be able to express our platform with all the flourish of the other parties, without losing the essence of it. Thankfully, the clarify of thought that the platform gives us enables us to apply it in the widest variety of situations, unlike the opposing platforms that, by virtue of their wordy excesses, make them unwieldable in situations other than those explicitly concieved.