If you haven’t been living under a rock these past few weeks, you know that Obama is our new President. However, you may not know that California and a few other states lost the battle for marriage equality when 51% of its voters voted "yes" on proposition 8, banning same sex marriage in that state. I know that, that is California and I live in New Jersey but the decision affected me too.
Before November 4th, same sex marriage was legal in the state of California making homosexuals as equel as the rest of the population. Now, thanks to the Mormon Church and numerous other religious groups that threw tons of money into campaigning for Proposition 8 to pass what we have worked so hard to achieve in human rights has been set back. I felt angry and hurt but at the same time truly touched by the way it affected Hayley. We started talking about it and discussing points. Hayley told me I sounded a bit preachy but I had to get up on my soapbox and yell about this injustice. So, here is my rant.
"We have to protect the sanctity of marriage," what the fuck does that mean exactly? Do they mean they want to protect the fact that they can get a divorce and remarry people as much as they want? Or do they want to protect the fact that they can have as many wives as they want (only applies to Mormons)? Or that they can carry on with illicit affairs while their spouse is none the wiser? Marriage is about love and there are no rules about love or at least there shouldn't be. But the main reason I am so angry that people voted "yes" on Proposition 8 is because "God" said that same sex marriage is wrong. A HELLO!! This is America and there is suppose to be a separation between the church and state. Therefore, we as a nation aren't suppose to base decisions on religious teachings, yet we always do. "One nation under God," when are we going to stop pledging that?
I know all you religious fanatics out there like to highlight passages in the bible about how homosexuality is wrong and immoral and how "God" says it's a sin, but I hate to remind everyone that the bible is just a an anthology of stories. God himself didn't write it, it was written by a bunch of men who were just interpreting what went down back then. I am pretty positive (based on all my years in catechism classes) that the only real rules to follow are the Ten Commandments and I know that none of them say anything about homosexuality (unless I decided to convent my neighbor's wife, which is pretty hot but that is more to do with adultery and not being a lesbian.)
I am as American as you can get, I consider ketchup a vegetable, and I am a virtual melting pot of nationalities so much so that you can't even tell my ancestry. They say that all men are created equal in America, but it really is only a myth, it's just something to say to make it look good for this country. I am sick and tired of being treated like a second-class citizen. Afraid of being honest about all of me because I am too scared that I might loose my job over a parent thinking I might turn their kid gay. (That would be an awesome superpower to have but I wouldn't use it on some kid, I would use it on all the celebrities I think are totally hot.) Or that I don't have the right to have my dream wedding because I can't marry the person I want to marry. I don't want to be just tolerated because of my sexual preference. Being an American is not about tolerance of diversity, but the embracing of diversities with the common goal of liberty and equality for all.
What right does the government have in telling us whom we should be allowed to marry? They shouldn't get the authority to regulate marriages gay or straight. If I decided to spend the rest of my life lying next to my Curious George doll and call it a marriage, I don't see how that is any of the government's business (maybe my therapist's business but certainly not the government.) That's why I think (and so does my girlfriend and many other's) that gay marriage should be allowed into law; rather I support the removal of the government's involvement in ALL marriages (along with its special privileges, which is innately unequal treatment.) Leave the term marriage out, save it for religious purposes only.
As for the idea that allowing gay men and lesbians to marry will destroy the sanctity of conventional marriage, I have witnessed that heterosexuals are doing that themselves. Great Job straighties keep on doing what you are doing, you are setting an excellent example for your children maybe when they are grow-ups the divorce rate will be around 75 percent.
