Gay Marriage: Let it Be

Recently, the perennial topic of gay marriage hit the news again, with President Obama's new bill (and the negative reactions it drew). As always, I was torn between the desire to laugh and to tear my hair out. Watching this issue unfold has always baffled me: Haven't we learned from history?

Let me explain. For years, it was illegal for members of different races to intermarry. Blacks couldn't marry whites. Yes, there were actual LAWS on the books that prevented it (the last ones being finally struck down in the early eighties). During the 50s and 60s, the argument against interracial marriage was that it would be a socially destructive force, that it would lead to irrepressible moral turpitude and society would crumble.

Flash forward forty years or so. Interracial couples happen with regularity (my own sister, in fact, is married to a black man) and the social destruction prophesied by the conservative racists hasn't come to pass. Personally, I think my black brother-in-law makes a damn fine father.

But, to raise another point, do the arguments against sound the least bit familiar?

There is no argument against homosexual marriage that makes the least bit of sense. None at all. Like it or lump it, marriage is a LEGAL CONTRACT between two people. and the law is supposed to be blind to matters of race, color, creed, or personal belief in this country.

If a Catholic priest does not wish to perform a homosexual wedding, that is certainly his right. This country supports freedom of religion. But marriages can be performed by court commissioners (mine was) and there is NO REASON WHATSOEVER for them to be able to refuse. And there is ALSO no reason why the leaders of this country should take this freedom away from the tax-paying homosexual citizens who live here.

In disallowing the right of marriage to a certain segment of the population, we create in that segment a second-class citizen. He or she does not have the same rights and freedoms as another, for an arbitrary, unchangeable reason. Speaking as an American, I find this totally unacceptable, and morally reprehensible.

To all those who speak against the right of homosexuals to marry, I say this; you are betraying your country. You are eroding the principals of liberty and equality upon which this nation was founded, and you are doing it for no good reason.

Grow up.