Posted on 04/22/2005 2:50:41 PM PDT by dipoledipole99
Gay Marriage: How much longer do we have to wait?
“If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace,”--- Franklin D. Roosevelt. Gay marriage is a controversial topic that most Americans are confused about, and we need to think back to America’s core principle that our founding fathers had left us with in order to clear up the confusion. So why is there so many oppositions to gay marriage? Why does America have to take the right to pursue happiness away from gays? The last time I checked, America is the land of the free, where everyone was created equal and given the same rights and liberties as everyone else. By banning gay marriage President George Bush along with 18 states are denying gays their rights. We are discriminating against the gays, taking away their civil rights and liberty, and the freedom of pursuit of happiness. We are all living in this country together so why can we not try to learn to live with each others’ differences? No one in this world is perfect, and we must learn to respect others for who they are. Banning gay marriage is simply prejudice. Americans are wrong for not allowing a person of a particular race, religion, or sexual orientation to participate in our existing institutions or enjoy the same activities others do. Whatever a person’s sexual orientation is, we should all have the same rights, as the existing institution of marriage is open to all. Marriage is defined as a union between two people, a man and a woman. People get so caught up in the words “a man and a woman,” that many automatically assumes that only a man and woman relationship could fall in love and it is this love that makes them eligible for marriage. Similar to blacks and interracial, prejudice is based not on what, but on who. We discriminated against blacks and took away their freedom and rights. We discriminated against interracial marriage and took away their civil liberty and equal protection. Likewise, by banning gay marriage we are taking the rights, civil liberties, and protections that gays have. Many mainstream Christians are against gay marriage because the Bible defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Mainstream Christians are just listening to the opinions of their religious leaders while not even knowing or considering the opposing side’s point of view. From that, people automatically assumes that one would have to be a man and a woman in order to get married. Otherwise, it would be wrong for same sex couples to marry because the Bible said so, and that is mainly why we are depriving gays their civil marriage. My take on religion is that we have had so many reinterpretations of the Bible over the past century that I’m surprised people are really using the Bible as an opposition to gay marriage. For example, (Leviticus 22:28-29) “If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives,” (Emond). Now in our society today if a woman does get raped, we will obviously not force the rapist to marry the woman and be with her for the rest of their lives. Instead, we would most likely put the rapist on trial and place him in jail for 10-15 years. (Peter 2:18) “Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them,” (Emond). Clearly after the civil war, America had made slavery illegal, and it does not exist in our society today. We have made all of these interpretations because we felt that these practices were not in accordance with the growing equality and freedom in our society today. The Bible has certainly told us to do many things, but we seemingly have our own interpretations on many issues that the Bible is concern with. So why all of a sudden are we following word for word what the Bible says, when we have been reinterpreting it for the last century? My other problem with religion is that I simply do not believe that we should have religion in our politics. Our society is not religion based and so any issues that our country is concern with should also not be based on religion. One of the biggest misconceptions that many argues is that gays encourages sex and will continue to make and spread diseases such as AIDS. “Many ‘same sex marriage’ lobbyists are also lobbying government on these "sexual freedom" issues. I have trouble reconciling this simultaneous desire for "sexual fidelity" in a "marriage" with the push for bathhouses, legalization of anal sex with 14 year olds,” (MacDonald). Christian MacDonald argues that the encouragement of gay sex will lead to disease spreading such as the development of public bathhouses, and the immoral practice of legalizing anal sex with 14 year olds. Now, I personally do not believe that just by legalizing gay marriage will do all those things. Since AIDS was discovered in 1983, the department of public health has made public bathhouses illegal in places like San Francisco. I do not believe that just by allowing gay marriage would make anyone want to reopen public bathhouses again. The misconception that AIDS was developed from gay sex is not true. Gay anal sex did not contribute to the development of AIDS. Yes, AIDS was first found in gays in America, but that does not mean gays are the cause of AIDS (Cline). The actual origins of AIDS are spread from SIV in chimpanzees and then mutated to become the HIV in humans (Kanabus). Furthermore, I do not see how gay marriage will influence 14 year olds to have anal sex, or even the fact that gay marriage will encourage sexual activities. With or without marriage, gays and non-gays are having sex everyday. If one believes that sex is a dilemma, then the solution is not to take it out on gays and take away their equality by banning gay marriage, but to educate the public and make them aware of the consequences of having sex. Banning gay marriage devises all the values and ideals that this country stands for. The Constitution guarantees us all equality, civil liberties, and the pursue of happiness. Now since we are all given the same freedom then one might ask, what’s the problem? The problem lies that America favors freedom over equality and that the freedom for the gays have been violated. Yes, we all have freedom in this country, but not everyone that’s living in this country are given the same equality as others. No one would ever go against gay rights and deprived them of their right to vote, speech, hold arms, and etc. These are the freedoms and rights that we are all entitled and given as citizens living in the United States. So shouldn’t our freedom to pursue happiness and civil marriage also be given to us? Everyone in the US is given equal freedom: Freedom to speak, vote, bear arms, and everything that our amendments say that we have the right to. My only concern about freedom is that we are depriving gays their freedom to pursuit their happiness. I simply do not understand why we have to deny gay marriage when marriage is only a contract that brings security between two people. By banning gay marriage we are taking away their equality. America has a tendency to strip away our equalities. People were against interracial marriage back in 1961 when the state of Virginia first banned interracial marriage. Richard Loving (White) and Mildred Jeter (Black) were prosecuted under a statute enacted in 1924 entitled “An Act to Preserve Racial Integrity.” The statute said that in Virginia no White person could marry anyone other than a white person. The law made it a crime not only to have interracial marriage in the State of Virginia, but it also criminalized interracial marriages outside the state with the intent of evading Virginia's prohibition. Furthermore the law stated that children born out of such “marriages” were deemed in the eyes of the State to be illegitimate and without the protections and privileges accorded to the children of lawfully wedded parents. It was not until 1967, 6 years later that the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the state to legalize interracial marriage (Alouise). The arguments against interracial marriage are the same for gay marriage. Religious believers think that it is wrong and unnatural for a black and white to marry each other in the1960's just as they think its unnatural for a man and man or a woman and a woman to marry today. As one can see history has a way of repeating itself. Denying gay marriage is exactly the same as denying interracial marriage in the 1960's, refraining their equality, equal protection, and rights. Although America might be denying gay marriage now, I am confident that we would someday come to the realization as we did with interracial marriage and slowly accept people for whom they are and not what they are. The only question that remains is how long. How long will it take for gay couples to have to wait till America starts accepting the fact that they are here living with us, in our country, states, cities, and communities? How long will it take Americans to realize that gays are not just a problem that we can sweep under the rug and hope that it will go away? How long?
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I'm sure the originator of this thread has said that phrase plenty of times.
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Please replyPlease learn how to use paragraphs.
“If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace,”--- Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Yeah, and that has exactly WHAT to dio with gay marraige?
Ever hear of a "paragraph"?
Paragraphs are your friends, Newbie.
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In before the ZOT!
This one is densely packed!
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