While everyone accepts that it is wrong to air negative views on religion, race, handicap, or gender, there are still a large group of people who feel it is okay to freely air their negative views about gays and lesbians. A lot of these people seem to feel as if there is some sort of choice involved- as if a person can choose whether or not they are a gay or lesbian. Medical research, as well as many studies, have shown conclusively that sexual orientation, whether gay, lesbian, bisexual, or straight, is a hard wired trait. While there are a small number who, due to severe psychological trauma, choose to pursue sexual relations with the same sex, the vast majority of gays and lesbians simply have no choice in regard to who they are attracted to. Their only choice comes from whether or not they they decide to live openly with their sexuality or if they decide to deny or hide it. The fact they are gay or lesbian does not change just because they do or don't live openly as one or whether they or society defines them as one.
We do not discriminate against those of color, mental or physical defect, or gender in part because "they can't help it, that's how they were born". Well, guess what, so were gays and lesbians. They are no different from the rest of us in terms of their feelings and motivations, only in the gender of those they feel those emotions for. Gays and lesbians in love feel the same love that straight people do, only it is for a person of the same sex. Gays and lesbians have the same urge to create a life with another and to have a family as a straight person does, only it is with a person of the same gender. If their desire to create a life and a family together is the same as a straight person, if their motivations are just as pure as a straight person's, then why shouldn't they be able to marry just as a straight person can?
The arguments offered against gay and lesbian marriage on the whole are weak or irrelevant in context of the laws and rightsof this country. Any biblical argument, given the separation of church and state, has no value in the creation of law. The argument that marriage should be reserved for a man and a woman for reasons of procreation is a weak one, because we allow marriage between men and women who have no desire to have children, or are not able through age, infirmity, or physical inability to have children. If procreation is the reason for marriage, then these couples should not be allowed to marry either. If we make the desire to commit to each other for life and form a family unit of their choosing the prime consideration for marriage, then gays and lesbians have as much right to marry as straight people do. As long as they take their commitment as seriously as any straight couple does, then what possible legitimate reason do we have for denying them their right to marry?
Marriage is legal recognition of a promise made by two people in front of witnesses. It is a contract. As long as two people are of age and have a meeting of the minds, then they have the right to enter into a contract. If gays and lesbians are of sound enough mind to be bound by contract in any other area, then they are perfectly able to enter into a marriage contract as well. They are no better or worse equipped to enter into marriage than a straight couple, given what divorce statistics have amply demonstrated.
Maybe my opinion on this matter would change if I was shown a legitimate reason against same sex marriage, but since no one has given any, I do not see how any court or learned body would not legalize it. While this is a democracy, this country was created as a republic to prevent unchecked emotion from deciding the rule of law. It is emotion, and a prejudice created by a lack of understanding, that is standing in the way of a universal national legalization of same sex marriage. Given what this country is supposed to stand for, we cannot allow such emotion to hold sway over the law. We must legalize gay marriage.
Laura Bramble
THE RED MENACE
Laura Bramble
Warning: controversial opinions ahead...
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