It's never been okay to have a hierarchy for citizens of this country. It flies directly in the face of why it was founded. It's not okay to discriminate against a person who cannot help who they are, and cannot change what makes them "different" and did not make a choice to be who and what they are. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area so there is a denser population of gays and lesbians and gay rights has been a local issue for longer than I've been alive. Most people I know have a homosexual in their life, personally or professionally. I am blessed to have quite a few. It's uncomfortable to me to type about "my gay friends", because I don't think of them that way. I am excited that they have been given the right to marry. I'm not sure that growing up I ever grasped the idea that they did not.
However...I don't see this as a "gay marriage" issue. This is about fairness and reaffirming that no one in this country is better or more deserving of a right or a privilege than any other person. The Constitution guarantees that to every citizen. After slavery was abolished, the lawmakers voted the 14th Amendment into law saying that there are not different classes of citizens in this country, and that what was in the Preamble was really what was meant. ALL men are created equal. In 1920 (on my birthdate!) they finally caught up to it with women.
Sexual orientation is not a choice. There have been so many who wished, prayed, tried to fake it til they made it for it to be different, that they could make themselves pick. Many of these tortured souls were shunned because of something they could not change and ended their lives because of it. I did not choose my sexuality. Believe me, if I did, it would be WAY more orderly.
Also, and this may make a few people grumpy, here's the thing-I agree that marriage is a religious institution and a contract between those taking their vows and God. If we could take the legal rights, privileges and responsibilities that are under the umbrella of "marriage" and call it something else, and make that what is available to everybody then it would be acceptable to not allow anyone to marry unless they meet the criteria for the religious institution they belong to. However, that would cause more problems than it solves, especially in the global society in which we live. Civil servants LOVE their descriptive, important sounding words. Other, older countries and languages would have no way to adapt. The word "marriage" is in every language. "Registered domestic partner"? Not so much.
I fail to see how allowing people to love who they love and partner with who they choose in ways that protects them causes harm to anyone. Don't support gay marriage? Don't be gay, or if you do, prepared to be a celibate confirmed single. No one's children are going to be sent down the path to hell by witnessing love. They just might go down that road witnessing hate, though.
Food for thought on an early Thursday morning.
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