A major social and political issue in the United States these past few years has been the so-called “morality” of a homosexual lifestyle. The mostly conservative/religious opposing party argues that homosexuality is “unnatural,” or they’ll say, “God prohibits it.”
This is not the case. There is nothing wrong with being gay or lesbian. We understand, however, that America is no stranger to this kind of civil rights issue. Before the meteoric rise of the “gay” dilemma, America had to decide if black people should be granted the same rights as white people. The lesson we took from that is to judge someone for who they are, not how they look, move, or in this case, are sexually oriented. As they say, “They aren’t ‘rights’ if they can be taken away.”
Being gay or lesbian is not something the masses need to poke and prod and see if it is an “acceptable” lifestyle. It is a close race no doubt, in a New York Times survey, 32 percent of those polled were in favor of gay marriage, though the opposers racked up 31 percent to pretty much even the teams.
This life is no different than if someone wore red shoes all the time and you didn’t like that. It is just another fact of life that starts out a little unfamiliar to the public, and they still don’t know how to react.
Say you never had pizza, you didn’t know what it was or what it’s made of, but years later, you love pizza and have no problem with it. The difference is, a lot of people don’t like pizza, and they choose not to have it, but they don’t try to get pizza banned because of their distaste. No one would listen to you if you argued that someone else eating pizza was ruining the sanctity of your lunch. There is absolutely no reason to condemn being gay or lesbian.
The gay rights issue has been around for years, but it received much more attention than usual when on Wednesday, May 9, President Obama officially announced his support for gay marriage. This decision has been picked apart and analyzed by the usual religious spokesmen complaining that gay marriage is “against God’s will.” A good majority of the Republican Party is saying that Obama is simply telling the American people what they want to hear. Then there’s Fox News. In an article about Obama’s announcement, Fox said, “The total continues to underscore how the Obama campaign has quickly managed to turn a potential political liability into a political tool.” The total they were referring to was the money Obama has made in the last few weeks. In Fox’s eyes, Obama is a horrible person who is preaching gay marriage to get support for the election. But maybe, just maybe, Obama actually has the crazy idea that no matter what sexuality you are, everyone should be given equal rights.
This issue is very sensitive, because of the religious aspect of it all. The argument that God hates gays is a fallback for every time the defendants of traditional marriage lose ground. But people who actually read the Bible know that Jesus does not ever explicitly say that homosexuality is wrong, much less that it’s worth this amount of fighting. He does say that traditional marriage should be between man and wife, but if we listened to everything the Bible said, we would be enslaving people, not eating shellfish, and stoning every female that isn’t a virgin on her wedding day. And yet some [Fox News] still fall back to the argument that gay marriage is wrong for religious reasons.
As of now, very few states allow for gay marriage. In fact, more states allow you to marry your cousin. In Washington state, gay marriage has been legalized, and God has yet to bring his wrath upon us. Now, the fact that people fight for their beliefs is okay to do, but say there was no law or technicality anywhere that forbid gay marriage. Things probably wouldn’t be much different. I am sure that people like Bill O’Reilly would still have their mansions and sports cars, and the jobs that paid for them. Gay marriage wouldn’t affect these people in any measurable way. Sure, you may have a gay neighbor, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Most humans have been changing their general opinions, views, and way they think for centuries. Just about five hundred years ago, the flat earth model was accepted as scientific fact, though it was based on assumption. Slavery was also widely accepted until less than a 150 years ago, and African Americans weren’t even granted many civil rights until a little over 40 years ago. These changes were brought about by the triumph of justice over ignorance, and it doesn’t seem like too much to ask for gays and lesbians to marry.
There are many reasons why some think gay marriage is wrong. There are also many reasons why people think Sasquatch is real, Osama Bin Laden is still alive, and President Obama is a secret Muslim.
That doesn’t mean that they’re valid, just, fair, or intelligent. While it is important to acknowledge people’s personal beliefs, when they take away the basic rights of a group of real human beings, we have to realize that these anti-gay protesters are no better than the white supremacists and segregation advocates of the 1950’s and 60’s.
Some may be blinded by their faith, others by their political beliefs, but no matter what you believe, the voices brave enough to speak out against this injustice will not be silenced until there are equal rights for all.