When you love someone, you love them. It doesn’t matter who they are, what they are, what they do, what they’re like. All that matters is that you love them. You turn a blind eye to any and all of their faults. You don’t care whether or not they like that same restaurant as you. You don’t care whether they share that one obsessive fascination you have. And if it’s real love, you don’t care what gender they are.
Anyone who is gay, lesbian, bisexual, or pansexual knows this. They have experienced this sort of love for the same sex, and have realized that gender does not matter in the game of love. Many people who are straight may know this. But sadly, in our society today, there are people who do not accept this fact. There are people who still cling to the stubborn view that love is only between a man and a woman, and no one else. These people may have only experienced love from man to woman or vice versa, but what they don’t realize is that it is not the only kind of love out there.
In the year 2008, I watched the California Proposition #8 be passed by popular vote. This proposition stated all marriage between two people of the same sex would not be legally recognized. I was only 10 years old at the time it was passed, but even then no one needed to tell me it was wrong; I knew it was. When the vote came in and majority ruled in favor, I could hardly believe my eyes. Why would someone vote yes on such a thing? I couldn’t even imagine.
In the years that followed, I tried my hardest to answer that question. Why would someone oppose gay marriage? I asked anyone I met who opposed thus. I looked online. I visited pro-prop-8 websites, I interrogated many anti-gay-marriage people. And yet, my hours upon hours upon hours of research have yielded nothing. Despite all that, I still have yet to come up with a satisfactory answer of any sort. All of the arguments I heard were weak, invalid, irrelevant, or flat-out not true. None of them seemed substantial to hold up classroom rule, let alone state law.
The most widely known and, quite sadly, the strongest of the anti-gay marriage arguments states that it ought to be banned because being gay is a sin against God. I find this argument to be not only irrelevant and pitiful, but even in some cases false. This argument is not even religiously sound. If the act of being gay is a sin, as some say, then the banning of gay marriage will do absolutely nothing to save their souls. The idea of sinning is based on a notion called “Free will”. This is the idea that in order to be a good Christian, one must make their own choices to not sin. If they are making the choice to “sin”, then regardless of whether they can follow through it is the same in God’s eye. And so even if it were offensive in God’s eye, and even if that did matter, banning gay marriage would do absolutely nothing to save anyone’s soul or bring less disgrace to God’s eye.
However, that argument is only to satisfy those who find homosexuality offensive due to religion, and therefore may vote against it. This all should be completely irrelevant. You see, here in America, we have a lovely little thing known as the “First amendment”. A major portion of this amendment states that Congress cannot force anyone to be any religion, or pass laws favoring any religion over the other. This has extended into a fabulous thing known as “Religious acceptance”. That means that regardless of whether you like someone’s religion or not, you have to allow them to be that religion. If a person chooses to be atheist, that is accepted. If a person chooses to be agnostic, that is accepted. If a person chooses to be Wiccan, that is accepted. If a person chooses to be Muslim, that is accepted. If a person chooses to be Christian, but believe that gay marriage is not a sin, once again that is accepted. Therefore, we cannot make laws based on religion. The people who are marrying the same sex have clearly chosen a lifestyle that does not believe it is a wrong thing to do, and that is a legitimate thing to do. A person should no more ban gay marriage based on religion than they should ban absence of prayer or foul language based on religion.
Another argument I have heard against gay marriage is the idea that if two people of the same sex were allowed to marry, it would dissolve the sacred bond of marriage. This argument is a thousand times more pitiful than the above argument. Marriage was made in order to form a special bond between two people who love each other. The idea is to make two people who want to spend their lives together into one family. To make marriage unavailable to two people of the same sex would be on par with making love unavailable to two people of the same sex. Love is non-gender specific. It is only person-specific. One person may love a different type of person than others. I love a spontaneous, goofy, open-the world, loud and obnoxious kind of person. My friend loves a quieter, sweeter, nicer kind of person. One person may love female, one person may love males, one person may love both female and males. It all depends on the person. For when it comes to love, there is no majority rules. In love, only 2 people matter: you are your lover. Love is complex, crazy, whimsical, and impossible to understand; all we know is that it happens, and there is nothing we can do about it. There is no type of love that is more pure or more substantial or stronger than any other type of love. Love between two men, two females, or one man and one female are all equally legitimate, no matter what the circumstances. Marriage is based on love, and marriage ought to be just as pure and strong and unselective as love is. Any person can love any other person, and therefore any person should be able to marry any other person.
In conclusion, I firmly believe that gay marriage should not be banned in any state under any circumstances. Love in pure and strong, and marriage ought to be just as well. No one should be denied to right to family simply because of who they fall in love with.
Anyone who is gay, lesbian, bisexual, or pansexual knows this. They have experienced this sort of love for the same sex, and have realized that gender does not matter in the game of love. Many people who are straight may know this. But sadly, in our society today, there are people who do not accept this fact. There are people who still cling to the stubborn view that love is only between a man and a woman, and no one else. These people may have only experienced love from man to woman or vice versa, but what they don’t realize is that it is not the only kind of love out there.
In the year 2008, I watched the California Proposition #8 be passed by popular vote. This proposition stated all marriage between two people of the same sex would not be legally recognized. I was only 10 years old at the time it was passed, but even then no one needed to tell me it was wrong; I knew it was. When the vote came in and majority ruled in favor, I could hardly believe my eyes. Why would someone vote yes on such a thing? I couldn’t even imagine.
In the years that followed, I tried my hardest to answer that question. Why would someone oppose gay marriage? I asked anyone I met who opposed thus. I looked online. I visited pro-prop-8 websites, I interrogated many anti-gay-marriage people. And yet, my hours upon hours upon hours of research have yielded nothing. Despite all that, I still have yet to come up with a satisfactory answer of any sort. All of the arguments I heard were weak, invalid, irrelevant, or flat-out not true. None of them seemed substantial to hold up classroom rule, let alone state law.
The most widely known and, quite sadly, the strongest of the anti-gay marriage arguments states that it ought to be banned because being gay is a sin against God. I find this argument to be not only irrelevant and pitiful, but even in some cases false. This argument is not even religiously sound. If the act of being gay is a sin, as some say, then the banning of gay marriage will do absolutely nothing to save their souls. The idea of sinning is based on a notion called “Free will”. This is the idea that in order to be a good Christian, one must make their own choices to not sin. If they are making the choice to “sin”, then regardless of whether they can follow through it is the same in God’s eye. And so even if it were offensive in God’s eye, and even if that did matter, banning gay marriage would do absolutely nothing to save anyone’s soul or bring less disgrace to God’s eye.
However, that argument is only to satisfy those who find homosexuality offensive due to religion, and therefore may vote against it. This all should be completely irrelevant. You see, here in America, we have a lovely little thing known as the “First amendment”. A major portion of this amendment states that Congress cannot force anyone to be any religion, or pass laws favoring any religion over the other. This has extended into a fabulous thing known as “Religious acceptance”. That means that regardless of whether you like someone’s religion or not, you have to allow them to be that religion. If a person chooses to be atheist, that is accepted. If a person chooses to be agnostic, that is accepted. If a person chooses to be Wiccan, that is accepted. If a person chooses to be Muslim, that is accepted. If a person chooses to be Christian, but believe that gay marriage is not a sin, once again that is accepted. Therefore, we cannot make laws based on religion. The people who are marrying the same sex have clearly chosen a lifestyle that does not believe it is a wrong thing to do, and that is a legitimate thing to do. A person should no more ban gay marriage based on religion than they should ban absence of prayer or foul language based on religion.
Another argument I have heard against gay marriage is the idea that if two people of the same sex were allowed to marry, it would dissolve the sacred bond of marriage. This argument is a thousand times more pitiful than the above argument. Marriage was made in order to form a special bond between two people who love each other. The idea is to make two people who want to spend their lives together into one family. To make marriage unavailable to two people of the same sex would be on par with making love unavailable to two people of the same sex. Love is non-gender specific. It is only person-specific. One person may love a different type of person than others. I love a spontaneous, goofy, open-the world, loud and obnoxious kind of person. My friend loves a quieter, sweeter, nicer kind of person. One person may love female, one person may love males, one person may love both female and males. It all depends on the person. For when it comes to love, there is no majority rules. In love, only 2 people matter: you are your lover. Love is complex, crazy, whimsical, and impossible to understand; all we know is that it happens, and there is nothing we can do about it. There is no type of love that is more pure or more substantial or stronger than any other type of love. Love between two men, two females, or one man and one female are all equally legitimate, no matter what the circumstances. Marriage is based on love, and marriage ought to be just as pure and strong and unselective as love is. Any person can love any other person, and therefore any person should be able to marry any other person.
In conclusion, I firmly believe that gay marriage should not be banned in any state under any circumstances. Love in pure and strong, and marriage ought to be just as well. No one should be denied to right to family simply because of who they fall in love with.
Post a Comment
Be the first to comment on this article!