I live in a state where civil unions have recently been legalized, and it's
turned my thoughts toward the subject of gay marriage. I have gay friends
who live in other countries, married and committed and very happy. For a
time, I had an internal debate, or maybe just a denial. I am a conservative,
as is obvious from my other rants. I have, for as long as the question
existed, sided against gay marriage. Not because I didn't want gays to have
the same rights, but because I honestly felt that marriage, as an
institution, was defined as being between a man and a woman. I thought it
was sort of like a man wanting to use the ladies room. Why not use your own?
I thought that civil unions should be the gay marriage. I didn't really get
that I was doing a 'separate but equal' thing. So what changed my mind?
Strangely enough, getting to know God changed my mind. And it's not that I
used to think it was bad and now I think it's good. I've never thought it
was bad, just unnecessary. But it isn't about necessary or unnecessary. It's
about allowing a group of people to do something (that really threatens
nobody) that makes them feel happy and fulfilled in their life. I mean, the
declaration of independence talks about all people being endowed by their
creator with certain inalienable rights, amongst them the right to life,
liberty, and the pursuit if happiness. It doesn't specify heterosexual
people, nor does it, for that matter, require that those people believe that
their creator exists. If someone has a right, endowed by another, then who
are we to regulate or refuse that right? The argument that is routinely
raised against it from a biblical sense is that it is a sin. Well, last time
I checked, it was God's business to pass judgement on sinners. Now, I
haven't read the whole Bible, so maybe I don't know all I need to know. But
I do know that God didn't put me here to whack people with lightning bolts.
If He feels the need to, He will. I have enough to worry about with my own
scorecard. I'm not trying to make light of this, honestly. I just don't
think God needs me to point out everything to Him. And whether or not my
neighbor might be doing something that annoys God, well, that's between my
neighbor and God. I do know that my gay friend loves her wife, and I just
don't see that being a bad thing.
The other argument is that somehow gay marriage is going to destroy the
fabric of the country. Tell me please, how two people being married and
having a family is going to destroy the country. They won't stop straight
people from doing the same, they won't stop kids from dreaming, or
fullfilling those dreams. They might like different things, they may do
things that you find distasteful, but as long as they work and live honestly
and don't invade people's privacy, then they do no more harm to the country
than anyone else. It is popular these days among conservatives to look to
the Founding Fathers for inspiration. Well, the Founding Fathers were
concerned with throwing off oppressive governments and letting people pursue
their happiness without a despot deciding who was entitled to those God
given rights. So maybe they would have agreed with me.
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