Wednesday, November 19, 2003
I was delighted to hear the ruling from the Massachusetts supreme court yesterday striking down a ban on same sex marriage as unconstitutional. I was less than delighted however to hear recent polls that support of gay marriage is eroding where it was once viewed by a majority as not a big deal. What's up people? I will never ever understand what the big freakin' brouhaha is. How does it personally effect anyone who's not directly involved if two people who are in love and happen to be of the same sex get married? Besides having to maybe buy one or two more wedding gifts here and there, how does it threaten your family, marriage, or life in any way? The thing is- I do understand the spiritual aspect of being "married" in a church getting some peoples' dander up concerning this issue. But I will once again remind everyone that we live in a country that is supposed to keep separate church and state. In other words, the court can't force your church to recognize or perform gay marriages, so it's no threat to you there either. Gay couples want the right to marry for a few reasons, which if you look at your own straight marriages, make perfect sense. If your spouse gets sick, you want to be there in the hospital to take care of them, visiting hours be damned, you want the authority to authorize life saving surgery for them, to handle your joint financial affairs while they're sick, and, should the worst happen, the right to collect social security benefits, so you won't lose your house and mutual possesions. These are rights that we can often take for granted. These are rights that gay couples are denied when you deny them the right to marry. Also, the conservative crowd should realize that a good gateleg for their pro life platforms is the fact that gay couples can't procreate with each other. Sure some go the route of surrogacy or sperm banks, but many wish to adopt. You can't push people towards giving their babies up for adoption instead of having an abortion and at the same time deny a huge segment of prospective parents the right to adopt those children. (Well, I guess you CAN if you wanna be a dick.)
Lastly. I'll say this, this country has a long and storied history of denying certain people rights for whatever reason. Women couldn't vote until the 19th amandement passed in 1920. African American citizens weren't fully given all their civil rights until the 1960's. Now we have another group of citizens, who pay taxes, and in some cases defend this country in the armed services, teach our children in school, and do surgery on your heart, who are being denied very basic civil rights afforded to all Americans under the equal protection amendment to the constitution (it's the14th amendment btw). and people are freaking out. All I ask is why? And all I ask of anyone with a problem is to ask yourself, "why?". Then think back on history where we denied rights to other groups of Americans, and how silly and backwards that seems now.Change is hard, but nessecary for the evolution of a society. But if this uproar is rooted only in a fear of change itself, it too will go down as a silly, backwards, historical marker.
Lastly. I'll say this, this country has a long and storied history of denying certain people rights for whatever reason. Women couldn't vote until the 19th amandement passed in 1920. African American citizens weren't fully given all their civil rights until the 1960's. Now we have another group of citizens, who pay taxes, and in some cases defend this country in the armed services, teach our children in school, and do surgery on your heart, who are being denied very basic civil rights afforded to all Americans under the equal protection amendment to the constitution (it's the14th amendment btw). and people are freaking out. All I ask is why? And all I ask of anyone with a problem is to ask yourself, "why?". Then think back on history where we denied rights to other groups of Americans, and how silly and backwards that seems now.Change is hard, but nessecary for the evolution of a society. But if this uproar is rooted only in a fear of change itself, it too will go down as a silly, backwards, historical marker.
