[continue]
The new mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, over the past weekend, enabled about 2800 same-sex couples to get married. Yesterday, San Francisco filed a lawsuit against the state of California challenging the state's laws forbidding same-sex marriage. The city claimed that these laws violate the state constitution that forbids discrimination.
The battle is joined. On one side you have Massachusetts and now San Francisco, insisting same-sex marriage is a civil rights issue. They have the U.S. Supreme Court on their side. On the other side are the right-wing conservatives who are proposing an amendment to the constitution to make same-sex marriage illegal.
Enacting an amendment horrifies me. Imagine an amendment added to the Bill of Rights that removes rights from some individuals merely because they have a sexual orientation that is different from that of the average citizen.
Thom Hartmann in his article, Gay Marriage? Blame it on Jefferson, says:
"Gay marriage is a civil rights issue, plain and simple, and entirely in keeping with the egalitarian vision of this nation's Founders. It's time for us to honestly and frankly face and accept that fact, and act appropriately."
Why are we afraid of differences? Differences have made our country strong. Let's unequivocally guarantee everybody's civil rights.
And let's not bring religion into this discussion. From the Christian World Encyclopedia I discovered that there are 33,830 different denominations in the Christian religion alone. All of us are different and all of us must respect these differences - or we cannot maintain a decent society.
Allowing gays and lesbians to marry will have no affect on any heterosexual marriage. Your marriage, my marriage will not be any different. Neither will mine or yours necessarily be better than any of the same-sex marriages. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, weighed in on this:
"Marriage has been undermined by divorce, so don't tell me about marriage. Don't blame the gay and lesbian, transgender and transsexual community."
True enough. Half of all heterosexual marriages end in divorce. Half the married population admits to engaging in adultery. What did homosexuals contribute to this sorry state of family life in the U.S.? Nothing.
I submit that those against same-sex marriage present another case of the "I-am-better-than-you" syndrome. An important part of everyone's life in our highly competitive society is to demonstrate that he or she is better than other people. Some do it in sports. Some do it in business. Some do it in public achievement. Some do it in religion ("My religion is better than yours"). And some focus on the family.
"Family values" people claim they have the correct approach to building healthy families. And maybe they do. But this is no reason to deprive other people of forming the kind of family that they prefer. As the expression goes, "this is a free country."
Let's keep this country free. Let's allow the same freedom to gays and lesbians as most of us enjoy. They are people too.
