Certainly there are appeals to follow and a nasty homophobic backlash on the way, but at least for now the gay marriage ban in California has been rejected. I have a lot of opinions about politics, and I feel very strongly about many of them, but I there are no issues which concern me more than those regarding basic human rights. I feel more strongly about this issue because I’m convinced that out of all the issues being debated in our society, it is the least balanced argument. There are different sides to most issues, and usually both sides bring some logical support for their view. I oppose the wars our country is engaged in, but I concede that decisions are made based on information that I don’t have. I can piece together what I’ve got and draw conclusions from that, but I’ll admit there’s a possibility that I’ve missed something. Likewise, there are smart people who’ve studied economics who have conflicting ideas about fiscal policies. Again, I have my opinions, but I can’t say that they are fixed and absolute. I could be wrong. Like anyone else, I don’t think that I’m wrong, so I vote accordingly. One issue that I’ve actually turned around on is gun control. I’m still not a fan of firearms, but my view of the second amendment isn’t nearly as negative as it used to be.
On the gay marriage debate, I don’t see any reasonable case for restricting the rights of other people. I don’t accept a possibility of being wrong in this case. There’s treating people fairly and then there’s blatant discrimination. That’s it. Fairness == good. Discrimination == bad. Consenting adults of any gender, sex, race, creed, fan club, ethnicity or what have you should have the same options for entering into a partnership. There’s another argument about the name of this partnership and whether the government should have anything to do with it at all, but that’s separate and distracting. Marriage is a convenient term for it, so that’s what we go by. Those who claim that they are “protecting marriage” or supporting “traditional marriage” work with fictional concepts regarding what they think marriage should be. The history of marriage contains many more issues than the modern “traditional” view cares to account for which really defeats the whole “traditional” concept right from the start.
The other list of reasons to legislate inequality include:
- Gay relationships are unproductive, they can’t have kids. So? Plenty of straight couples don’t have kids. Not allowing them equal rights is not going to make them quit being gay and begin procreating. Besides, there are plenty of kids who need to be adopted…
- The children! What about the children!? Children of gay parents are not worse off than the children of straight parents. Delusional religious people would have you convinced that this is true, but they have no evidence for this. In fact, a recent study showed that kids with two mommies were actually more well adjusted than kids from the “sacred” or “traditional” families. Gay parents won’t make kids gay either, straight parents make the gay kids, see the previous argument.
- God said it’s bad. Really any other arguments are desperate grabs to cover up for this one. Even though they argue (falsely) that America is a Christian nation, and was founded as such, many understand that this doesn’t constitute a rational argument. Plenty of other sins are legal and will not see any significant legal strife. Businesses are open on Sundays, straight people can get divorced, gambling is legal and of course the United States already attempted and failed to ban booze. Since “God said it’s bad” doesn’t work for those, it won’t work here either.
- It’s yucky and gross! Any doubts they have about God are covered by this. You know what’s yucky and gross? Church. Church : Freaky Metal Kid :: Gay Bar : Protect Marriage Assholes. I don’t wanna be in church, so I don’t go. I don’t like religious people telling me their ghost stories, so I don’t hang out with them. If you don’t want to make out with another dude, don’t do it. If you don’t like hot girl on girl action, stay off the internet.
I’m tired from work and losing my train of thought, so I’ll end with: don’t be a dick to people just because they’re different from you. If you don’t like them, leave them alone to do their thing and you can go do yours and we’ll all be happy. It’s not that fucking complicated.