What is my opinion on same-sex marriage? The US just
legalized gay marriage nationwide so people have been expressing their strong
opinions on the matter, especially the religious variety. It’s unnatural, they
say; It offends them, they say. Some try to rationalize their distaste for same
sex marriage by arguing that same-sex couples are unfit to raise kids, by
arguing that kids need both a father and a mother -nevermind that the issue of
adoption is separate from the issue of marriage itself, that there are plenty
of parents not fit to raise a family but are legally given the right to do so …
nevermind the fact that single parents are actually allowed by law to adopt
children. –let that last phrase sink in for a moment. Also, I’m not sure what
passes for “natural” in this hitech age of ours but I imagine that the people
complaining that gay marriage isn’t natural aren’t living in the jungle and
hunting their own food.
The bottomline is: It doesn’t matter what my opinion on it is. It
doesn’t matter what yours is. None of us should be able to repress a group’s rights
on basis of personal opinion. Two adults, regardless of gender, should be allowed to spend their lives
together and be afforded the same legal rights and recognition as the rest of us. Anything less is no different from state-imposed
racism, sexism and other state-imposed isms that we’ve left behind in the past.
If the general public finds the idea offensive, they must know that they have a
right to be offended but what they don’t have is the right not to be. They also
don’t have the right to force their outdated religious sensitivities down people’s
throats.
Several decades ago, people of different races were not
allowed to get married. It was considered a criminal act punishable by
incarceration. Not only was racism popular among the public, it was also state
imposed. It seems so backwards to us now that interracial marriage is widely
accepted but it was considered taboo back then. At some point in the future,
when rejection gives way to tolerance and tolerance gives way to acceptance, people
will see same-sex marriage the same way we view interracial marriage now. When they do, wouldn’t you want to be on the other side of the fence?