Gay Marriage
As you may have surmised by now, I'm a tree-hugging hippie liberal and I like men. Deal with it.
Gay marriage has been a hot topic for a while, in case you've been living under a rock. We always seem to hear who's opposed to gay marriage but there don't seem to be that many supporters in our political offices. It's a touchy subject around election time and politicians who might personally support the idea are afraid to say so. But voters aren't really that stupid, are they? Since there seems to be very little supportive information out there I felt it my duty to help Ma and Pa Kettle out there get a badly needed clue.
My first gripe is with the people who think they need to "protect the institution and sanctity of marriage." Protect it from what? My parents are married, though not to each other. My sisters are married. If I were to marry a man, how would that make a man/woman couple any less married? It wouldn't. Straight marriage doesn't need protection from gay people. Turn your attention to divorce if you want to protect it.
Religious objections, discriminatory as they may be, should be respected. People have the right to their beliefs and religions and I'll defend even their right not to like me. It's their right and no one should interfere. I'm not saying that churches should be forced to perform gay marriages if they don't want to. Two of the great things about this country are freedom of speech and freedom of religion; you can say what you like as long as you're not hurting anyone. It just so happens that my religion respects and performs the union of all loving couples. I wouldn't be a part of it otherwise. But if your religion doesn't like gay marriages then your church shouldn't perform them. Fine.
There is a way to cheat. If you spend a lot of money on attorney fees you can get a huge stack of contracts covering every aspect of life including property, health, decision making, powers of attorney, children, etc. These add up to the legal aspects of marriage. Until some uptight relative challenges them and some moronic judge agrees, then all your planning and hard work go right out the window. So it's not really a viable option, is it? Even if it were a bulletproof documentation of a couple's life together, it still wouldn't be marriage. A rose by any other name? No! There is a principle at stake here, and an alternative imitation of marriage just won't do.
The gay community doesn't really have leaders but we do have some people who make more noise than the rest of us. I like that visibility in general. I just think that the timing was wrong for a marriage push. During a time of surging conservatism, a slow economy, war in Iraq, terrorism and many other big issues - when Republicans have way too much power over the country - this just isn't the time. Pushing for marriage rights when we did brought about the response we should have expected. Conservatives jumped at the chance to define marriage and pass discriminatory anti-marriage laws. Well, now we're fucked; it will take even longer and be even more difficult to overturn those laws before we can gain equal rights to walk down the isle. Thanks a lot.
NOW marriage needs protected. Think back over history. There was a time when women couldn't vote. There was a time when black people had to use a different water fountain. Interracial couples were met with hate and violence. All that crap is pretty much gone, one likes to think. But those situations describe where we are right now; a basic human right to love and have that love supported by our community is being witheld. People whine about this or that offending them, well it offends me that anyone believes they have the right to tell another person how to run their life or who to share it with.
At the present time I wouldn't be getting married anyway. That's not the point. I never really wanted to get married until someone told me that I couldn't. Now that the subject is out there in the town square it's never going to go away until all people are equal.
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