Hey, it's a free country...well, not that free
Two weeks ago on election day, 11 states had votes on ballot measures that would define marriage as only between a man and a women. The measures passed in all 11 states. The reason they did this was to keep gay people from marrying each other.Explain to me how two people who love each other, want to spend their lives together, want to create a family, and want to enter into a social contract to do so are a threat to the institution of marriage. The federal law passed in the U.S. Congress during the Clinton administration to limit marriage to one man and one woman was called the Defense of Marriage Act. Politicians (mostly conservative ones) speak about defending the institution of marriage. But again, I ask the question: how are homosexual unions a threat to marriage? It seems to me that infidelity and the ever increasing divorce rate in the United States are threats to marriage. Yet, we make no laws concerning them.
People claim that marriage has always been defined traditionally as between a man and a woman and therefore it should stay that way. Fine…if it were only a cultural institution. But, it is also a legal institution with rights recognized by the government. It is clearly discriminatory to limit such a legal institution. The government has an obligation to treat all citizens equally. It cannot deny that obligation based on cultural tradition.
Slavery, Jim Crow laws, and denying women the right to vote were also cultural traditions that allowed the government to discriminate against people. The error in them was eventually recognized and corrected. So now the courts of the U.S. are beginning to recognize the error in denying marriage rights to homosexual couples.
Religious fundamentalists claim that gay marriage is an affront to morality, because the bible (an ancient text claimed to be inspired by an invisible being in the sky) says so. Yeah, that book says a lot of things, especially the book of Leviticus, which is usually used as the example of where the bible denounces homosexuality. Most of the stuff in Leviticus is ludicrous and is ignored by the churches of today. However, I simply do not accept such religious arguments as rational, and do not believe that they belong in the public discourse over civil law. Thankfully, the framers of the constitution agreed and declared that the government may not endorse any religion or discriminate against anyone for their religious beliefs. Banning gay marriage because of religious beliefs is simply unconstitutional and un-American.
Even less rational people claim that allowing gay marriage is a slippery slope leading to polygamy and bestiality. What utter nonsense. First of all, polygamy probably should be legal. Why is it illegal in the first place? More religious reasoning? I mean, if it doesn’t cause harm to anybody, what right does the government have in denying anybody to do something? Secondly, for crying out loud, animals are not humans and our laws do not apply to them. If some goat herder wants to marry his little cabrita, well too bad. Goats don’t possess higher reasoning and they don’t pay taxes. As funny as they are, marriage with them is pointless. Let’s just enjoy their cheese.
posted by Bryan @ 7:55 PM
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