Rising gas prices, jobs going overseas, rising food prices, terrorism fears, an unending war in Iraq. Yet, according to some, the most important thing for this nation to do is to Constitutionally take away the liberties of two consenting adults of the same sex from getting married because a court "foolishly" recognized that a state Constitution didn't explicitly ban homosexuals from getting married. The only positive thing I can say about those people are that they are at least more educated than the misguided souls who feel that just because the people want an unconstitional law that the courts should ignore "the law" (of which a Constitution is superior to statutes and the like) and allow an unconstitutional law to be legal. Just because voters pass a law that permits discrimination doesn't mean a court is obliged to ignore Constitution law, which is superior to a statute.
I can understand if your religion says homosexual marriage is wrong, and I don't have any issue with a church or religious figure refusing to perform in such a ceremony. That is part of their religious liberty and I would be against any law that would somehow force them to perform such a ceremony that went against their religious beliefs. That is their right. But to try to enforce "your" religious values on others and work to deny people to even marry in a civil ceremony is not a denial of "your" religious rights.
The First Amendment to the US Constitution says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ..." Some people seem to be confusing this with a perceived right to force others to live by their religion's values. Not so. Despite what some politicians want people to believe, working to prevent a non-religious, secular government, which is what the United States' government is supposed to be, from providing certain rights to people based on who they are due to your religious beliefs is un-Constitutional.
But lets take away God from the mix. Now we simply have people upset that two people of the same sex want to get married. What is the big deal? Why is it anyone's concern, aside from friends and family of the couple, if they want to get married? Is it the term marriage they find objectionable or is it something else? Why do the opponents hate the idea of gays in love getting married like straight people?
I just don't understand how people can be so full of hate that they feel it is vitally important to prevent two people who love each other from being married, even civilly (as opposed to by religion -- at least that I can understand, to an extent). Maybe it's because I was raised at a time when many of our nation's racial and sexual fights were history that gay marriage feels like a non-issue to me. I was born in the late 1960s. By time I was in school, Martin Luther King, Jr. day was already being celebrated in NYC. Like the Vietnam War and Martin Luther King, Jr, the sexual revolution was already in the past for me. Just as it seems incomprehensible for a business to refuse to serve a customer due to their skin color, it feels equally incomprehensible to deny people certain rights based on their sexuality. It is not the role of "looney liberals" to do the right thing and tell the people that their will is illegal; it is the role of those who seek justice for all.
Gay secular marriage is not about what some people think some God may have said. It is about liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We don't have a national religion in this country. People should be free to live as they wish with whatever beliefs or non-beliefs is in their heart. If there is a God angry at them for disobeying His laws (and lets face it, almost every religion says that non-believers are dammed so, to an extent, we've all been dammed by somebody), then that is their problem, not mine or yours. Free will works both ways.
How is banning gay marriage different from older laws preventing blacks and whites or Jews and Christians from marrying? How about those who did not plan, or were unable to, have children from marrying? How about single parents who are raising children in a non-traditional family due to death or divorce? Should they be discriminated against too? How much hate must such a person have in their hearts to endorse the notion that it should be constitutional to discriminate?
And that's what all this anti-gay marriage talk is about: hate. Though the haters will be the first ones to deny it, there must be, in my opinion, some hatred of gays that they are letting poison their souls. That's not to say I never heard, or laughed at, racial and gay jokes growing up or was never exposed to those attitudes: far from it (as a side note, some of the best Jew jokes are told by my rabbi at temple). I grew up in a neighborhood well known for its racial intolerance (and knew many of the intolerant). I've seen hate up close and that is what this is. Hatred is the only reason I can think of as to why is it so hard for them to accept two consenting adults do what their hearts tell them and why they feel it is their role to prevent gays from marrying.
Some people will defend their hatred by noting that marriage is for people to raise a family. Then, by that logic, a couple who choose or unable to have children are in an illegal marriage. Too bad for my aunt and her current husband, who were in in their 50s and 60s when they married a few years after their spouses, the father and mother of their grown up children, had passed away.
Why is it the problem of homosexuals that some straight people feel their being married threatens heterosexual marriages? I for one do not feel my marriage is threatened because my gay friends want to get married. More power to them. And, if I did feel threatened, that would be my problem, not their's.
Just because you or I may believe that marriage is between a man and a woman does not mean we have the right to force others to follow our views. No one is forcing anybody to associate with gay married couples. No one is forcing religious leaders to go against their beliefs. The intolerant would do well to remember that before they advocate forcing others to follow their beliefs. You worship your God your way, I'll worship my God my way. I won't force my values on you or your children and you don't force that on me or my children, which includes any prayer to any God at a public event.
In any event, this country has much bigger problems than whether gays can marry or a person can pray in school or at other public events. Better to focus our energies on what is really important instead of this false issue that politicians like to promote to take away our attention from our real problems: high taxes, high energy costs, Iraq, corruption etc.
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