The azure sky is host to a sun-filled spring day. Lilacs lend their scent to the air. The clouds disappear in what seems like divine intervention for this day. This is the perfect day you’ve been waiting for since you met. As you face one another you say your vows, promising to love one another forever. It’s the happiest moment in your life– unless you’re gay.
Gay marriage is no doubt one of the hot-potatoes being passed around the political table this year. Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Iowa, Vermont and New York all have legalized marriage between same-sex couples. States such as Michigan chose to ban it. Some took it as far as adding the ban to their state Constitution as an amendment. Michigan’s Constitutional amendment was most recently established in 1996 in the wave of the “Defense Of Marriage Act” (DOMA) wherein the government established the definition of marriage as “one man and one woman.”
It was sad back in ’96, and it’s sad now. We should have progressed past this point as a society, yet we let a little thing called “religion” creep in like a voracious climbing weed and choke out common sense. If you are married I want for you to look at your spouse–right now. Really look at them; would you love them any less if they were the same sex? Have you ever been divorced? Have you ever cheated on your spouse? If you said yes, you must not be committed enough to the vows you took at the altar; you are a disgrace to the sanctity of marriage.
What we are failing to see is that “religion” is an opinion. Just like this article, it is neither right nor wrong. It is a personal belief or system of beliefs that varies from person to person. Opinions are not fact. Opinions are made to persuade the public. Facts, however, speak volumes.
Fact: Hundreds (thousands if you count each individual insect species) of other species other than Homo sapiens have been documented copulating with the same sex. Take for example the common dragonfly: Up to 80 percent of males were observed to have damaged cloacae.
Fact: There is not one species on the known earth that does not have a homosexual element to it. Unlike us humans, our animal friends don’t have to make up a “god” or “religion” to tell them it’s wrong. They do what’s right to them naturally. They were born that way.
It should be easy logic then to parallel that if everyone has a right to love, everyone has a right to marry the one they love. As an American citizen, I don’t like having my rights taken away. I don’t like having someone else’s opinion forced on me through law. Making something illegal because it crosses someone’s religious opinion isn’t fair to those who don’t agree, nor is it practical. There are better things to do.
If we are going to keep gay marriage illegal to satisfy xenophobic bigots, then we should outlaw cheeseburgers and bacon to satisfy the beliefs of other religions that outlaw pork and beef products. The worst possible outcome from legalizing gay marriage is that gays will marry and live happily ever after–or at least pretend like they do for the neighbors, just like the
rest of us.
Every day I become angrier and more resentful towards the religious leaders (and leaders who are religious) who are attempting to create legislation out of religion. Even worse, it’s not Biblical law, it’s dogmatic law they want to turn into practical law. I’ve always argued that this country is far more oppressive to non-believers than most realize. Sure it isn’t exactly Sharia law, but it’s maddening that choices are being made for me and my country with only the interests of religion in mind, and not what is truly best for society.
This is certainly a freedom issue. Americans should be “free” to marry whomever they choose. Done.
I agree that everyone has the right to be married, but just because something occurs in nature doesn’t mean humans should necessarily emulate it…. otherwise we would all be eating our young ;p
Where in nature do humans eat there young?
That’s just it- we don’t. Just because animals do something doesn’t mean it’s acceptable behaviour for humans (ie, licking our butts or eating/ abandoning our young)