Weighing In is a new series we’d like to start where we both share our ideas on the same topic. If this works well then expect more of them in the future.

___________________________________________________________________________

What Really Is The Issue Here?

In light of the recent vote against gay marriage in the state of Maine, many questions have popped into my head.  Just six months ago they were the second state to permit same sex marriage, now due to the “people’s veto” they are no longer that.  I am very much surprised at this outcome due to Maine’s reputation as a forward thinking state, now Iowa on the other hand I would not have thought would be for gay marriage but they did pass that revolutionary law.  I have even visited Iowa and did not get the impression some of the locals were for same sex marriage.  One man even said not to talk about it in front of him because it angered him so.  It just goes to show we cannot judge who will or will not be for this issue.

Now on to my questions, these questions are posed to anyone, I feel these are things we should ask others and ourselves.  We need to start logically thinking about this topic and stop letting our own fundamentals and morals get in the way.  This is a bias issue due to the fact that it is not your life you are affecting.  So here I go.

Who are we to try and control other people’s actions?  Who are we to tell others how to live their life?  What makes one happy is not what will make another happy, but it does not matter what makes you happy.  For it is not your life to control.  So why are people trying to stop gay marriage?  They are human, are they not?  Sadly in some people’s eyes they are not, but they are corrupted by man’s religion and have no mind of their own.  How can someone think it’s right to deny a basic human right to another?  Being with the person you’re in love with for a lifetime legally is not something others should control.  For it’s not their lives it’s affecting, neither friend nor foe.  I find people who regard gay marriage as morally wrong and say it’s diminishing the sanctity of marriage should take a good look around them.  The amount of divorce in this country is absurd and the amount of infidelity is worse.  So who in fact is diminishing it, the people who aren’t allowed legally or the ones who are?

Marriage is not only a religious rite anymore.  More and more people are getting married by a justice of the peace or an ordained minister, which by the way you only have to take an online test of some sort to become or pay for it, where is the religion in that?  The answer none, so be off with your crazy antics about religion and stop getting in the way of others happiness because you think it’s wrong.  It does not matter what you think it’s not your life, so take a step to the left and get out of the way.

Heart,

Natalie

___________________________________________________________________________

With Liberty And Justice For Some

Natalie already covered most of my objections to opponents of gay marriage in the moral sense. We both have the same ideas on that matter. So instead of repeating the same things over again I’d like to hit it from a different angle. Something that angered me just as much as anything else when I heard about the vote in Maine.

Plainly stated: Human rights are not up for vote!

It’s simple. I don’t even see how arguments can be made against that basic idea. What if people started to try and pass laws forbidding Christians to get married? The shitstorm would be Biblical! (Haha, get it?) All the time people make the argument that gay people can be denied equality because they choose that lifestyle. Bullshit. At no point in my life did I make a conscious decision to be attracted to females. So why would it be different for anyone else? And even if we accept that argument, then that just makes an argument for denying rights to any religious group of my choice all that much stronger. They chose to worship that god in that way. So they could just stop. And no more denial of rights. Easy right?

The other argument I hear all the time by opponents of gay marriage is that Christian values should govern this country because it was founded as a “Christian Nation”. My ass it was. The people who founded this country were deists, yes. But most sure weren’t Christian. For example, we all remember that Thomas Jefferson guy, right? He drafted the Declaration of Independence. What would he have to say on the subject? Oh, here we go! Here’s a quote from a letter he wrote.

“Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.”

Pretty clear, no? How about Benjamin Franklin? He wrote something that seems to make his position pretty clear.

“I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies.”

I’m not saying the country was founded as an un-Christian nation or without Christians. But by no means was it the core belief system behind the nation’s founding.

It seems like it’s the same people who hold the Constitution up in front of them to justify much of what they do, clinging especially to the First and Second Amendments like driftwood in an ocean, that at the same time might as well be wiping their asses with the Declaration of Independence. I know they tend not to be big on reading, but you only have to get to the second sentence to reach the part where ALL people are created equal. So let’s start treating them that way. Marriage for one means marriage for all.

~George