I have been sitting here for the last few months trying to figure out the right words to describe exactly how important marriage equality is to this country! What it comes down to is this, you cannot treat citizen's of this country as second class citizen's based solely on who they love and want to marry. We live in a country built on diversity, to treat people differently because of their sexual orientation goes against the very fiber this nation was built upon!
The constitution does not say some men are created equal, it says all men. The Constitution does not say all men are created equal, unless of course they are gay, lesbian, or trans-gender!! Christian groups that are fighting tooth and nail to prevent same sex marriage need to realize that the very rights that give them the freedom to be Christian's and to speak their mind, gives gays and lesbian's the right to marry who they choose.
Sadly, these Christian groups also fail to acknowledge that there is supposed to be a separation of church and state, that this was included in the Constitution of this country for a very specific reason, so religion could not be used to force another's belief's upon those who do not believe as they do. You are free to believe what you want, what you are not free to do is force your belief's, your moral's on to other people. Do not forget that many of the first immigrant's to come to this country, came here to escape religious persecution. For a group of people who have been persecuted for their differences and belief's through out history, Christian's sure do their share of persecuting those who are different than themselves.
See for example:
Slavery:
"Most Southern clergy called upon Abrahamic tradition to claim support for slavery. Eugene D. Genovese points out that “Abraham was, in their oft-expressed view, simultaneously a great slaveholder and God’s favoured patriarch of a household that included his many slaves” (38). The Southerners held that the biblical texts admonishing slave owners and slaves on their responsibilities promoted the institution of slavery. Southern clergy believed that slaveholding was never condemned in the Bible, that Jesus and his disciples never espoused abolition principles and, further, that the master-slave relationship was superior, and more Christian like, than the employer-employee relationship of the free labour system. "
Interracial Marriage:
"The trial judge in the case, Leon M. Bazile, echoing Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's 18th-century interpretation of race, proclaimed that
| “ | Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix. ” |
Women's Suffrage:
Other Religions:
All men are created equal! Life, Liberty, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS!
Frankly, my pursuit of happiness is my business, it is none of your concern what makes me happy in my life...just that I have the constitutionally protected right to pursue my own idea of happiness and the ULTIMATE happiness in this life is someone to share it with. Who that person is my choice and mine alone! You do not have to live the rest of your life, with my chosen spouse, I alone have to spend the sleepless nights due to their resonating snore and pick up their dirty underwear, so butt out and tend to your own marriage and let me tend to mine with the spouse of my choice.
The LGBT&Q community has been lowered to a tier on the civil rights ladder that is beneath that of even convicted serial killers. For example, Richard Ramirez, The Night Stalker was allowed to marry Doreen Lioy after being convicted of killing 13 people, yet the cute little, law abiding, gay couple next door are barred from getting married by many of the laws in this country.
Even if a LGBT person lives in a state that allows same sex marriage, it is not recognized on a federal level, thanks to The Defense of Marriage Act! What this means is that at a federal level these couples are not married and therefore do not qualify for any federal recognition! Including but not limited to, being able to check married on their Federal Tax Return, claiming Social Security when their "state recognized spouse" dies or the denial of citizenship if they marry a person not a resident of this country.
Countries that have legalize same sex marriage have not been destroyed with fire balls from Heaven, haven't had a decrease in straight marriages, nor has the institution of marriage been destroyed or harmed. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, they haven't experienced any negative outcomes from their decisions to allow people who love each other to express that love in the highest form possible, Marriage.
In a country where the divorce rate is roughly 50%, maybe the focus should be on your own marriage instead of worrying about the marriage of other American Citizen's. Honestly, if you are worried that same sex marriage will destroy your heterosexual marriage, then it must not have been very strong to begin with.
Your marriage is not supposed to be based on outside influences, it is supposed to be based on the love, trust, companionship, and commitment you have with your spouse and if you are allowing others to interfere in that, then your marriage is bound to fail. Do not try to blame the failure of your marriage on others, when you really need to place the blame of its failure on you and your spouses shoulders. If your marriage is strong it will survive anything, if not, then you might have more luck on your second or third!!! Although fair warning the percentage of failure for these marriages is 60% to 73% failure rate respectively. Marriages fails because of the people in them, not because of same sex marriage!
The fight against marriage equality in this country is being waged by a group of bigoted hypocrites, who base their entire argument on the bible. Amazingly, they quote only the verses that fit their argument and ignore the ones that they are breaking in their daily life. While the bible may say that man shall not lie with man, and woman shall not lie with woman...it also lists a whole slew of other "Abominations" that I witness "Christian's" doing everyday, from eating shell fish...( we see you all at Red Lobster after church) to divorce, wearing polyester, rounding the corners of your beards, harvesting your entire field, committing adultery, and the most important of all Judging others:
Romans 2:1 "Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things."Furthermore, the rules of the bible only apply to those who believe in it. Those belief's are not shared by everyone and as I have already stated, you do not have the right to force your belief's on to others.
In my opinion, the Christian religion is a barbaric religion full of hate and discrimination, that calls for the murder of those who are not Christian's or who do not follow the Christian path.. including children. How any self respecting woman could buy into the Christian religion with its sexist views escapes me, how any person who has every cried over the death of a child, by a serial murderer or child abuser, could follow biblical teachings escapes me...especially when the bible calls for the death of children that curse their parents or neighbors and even brags about the deaths of all the first born children of Egypt.
If we were to read about these deaths in a newspaper, or see a report about them on T.V. today, we would be calling for the arrest and prosecution of the person responsible for these horrific acts, but because it is written in the bible, Christian's believe in, and even embrace these horrific deaths as completely acceptable. How can the death of any child be acceptable? How can anyone believe in a God that would have innocent children slaughtered?
To choose one "sin" from the bible and focus solely on it, when there are in fact numerous others that are viewed in the bible as equal abominations, that Christian's participate in daily, shows the true nature of their reasoning and evokes questions into the real reason behind this Christian quest. Since I do not see them calling for laws banning divorce or allowing marriage to only occur if the woman is a virgin, nor are they calling for laws on the various other Abominations listed in their biblical text, I can only conclude that they are homophobic hypocrites that pick and choose which laws of their God they choose to follow or try to have enforced, which does not include the ones they, themselves violate.
As a parent my greatest wish is to see my children live happy, long lives filled with love, with the current discriminatory laws on the record, that cannot happen. My son, Jordan is gay. Jordan and his partner Chase have been together 2 years and 3 months...they live together, they love each other deeply and one day they hope to get married, but because of the bigotry and discrimination in this country they will not be ALLOWED to marry who they want to spend the rest of their life with.
They will be denied the highest recognition of their love and commitment to each other by people who have no right to interfere in their life or love. They will be denied the equal rights that they are entitled to because a group of hypocrites feels the need to try and control their life, and force them to live their lives according to the "Christian" God they believe in..a God who's words, these Christian's themselves violate every chance they get.
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