Here are the values that I stand for: honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values. Ellen DeGeneres
i try not to use this blog as any kind of platform...its mostly just a way to express myself and my daily life. so forgive me in advance if you dont agree or dont want to finish reading this. because this issue is just too big to not take a moment to at least make an argument. i, in all honesty, can not believe we live in a society so amazingly and stringently UPTIGHT and THREATENED by the choices of others. or even by someone else's REALITY. it doesnt matter whether you believe that being gay is a choice or not. if i'm going to discriminate against a group of people for making a CHOICE, i better be able to stand up in defense of every choice i've ever made. and if you believe that you are born gay, then its completely unreasonable to even attempt to deny them any kind of right as a group.
in all seriousness....every single person on this earth should be able to identify or at the very least have compassion for a group of people struggling to be recognized as equals. i personally have this ancestry...indian, irish & german. i'm catholic (or was, anyway). and i'm a woman. each of these groups of people has fought prejudice and discrimination. many people who came before me, FOUGHT and DIED for the rights that i now have. and after being given these rights, it is in NO WAY acceptable for me to use them to help subjugate any other group of people. in NO WAY.
i'm not saying you have to agree. there are PLENTY of things, groups and people out there that i have a STRONG distaste for. but so what? who am i to infringe MY set of beliefs on anyone else. denying gay couples the right to marry just weakens us as a culture. we sit on our high horse and condemn the middle east for their treatment of women. because we FINALLY decided women should have equal rights. but we are still attempting to limit them. if i'm a woman that wants to marry another woman and you deny me that right, you are STILL subjugating me!! you are just calling it something else.
if your argument is religious - fine. let your GOD decide. if GOD truly does not believe in same sex relationships, then let HIM sort it out. it is not within our rights to make that call. and if your objection is based purely on personal preference or distaste, then shame on you. no one is asking you to be GAY. or marry anyone you dont want to. i'm not sure how allowing someone to have the same rights as you do can possibly be threatening to YOUR rights. do we think that if we make gay marriage legal, then straight people are going to STOP getting married?? i dont understand the argument. i'm pretty sure if you worship in a church that frowns upon homosexuality, you are not going to all of the sudden have a surge of gay marriage at your church. its not about making anyone uncomfortable. its about being ALLOWED to provide for loved ones. being given the same level of RESPECT that you yourself expect. why are we so threatened by anything that is different?
HATE in any form is detrimental. bigotry, racism, sexism. is there any kind of good that comes from any of these? and why must we have to learn our lessons over and over and over again? there are NO second class citizens. there is no group of people that deserves LESS than another. because if there are, then every one of us is in danger of becoming one of those people that is deemed LESS. maybe today you are sitting high in your secure place of judgement. but situations always reverse eventually. and who wants to be on the flip side where your rights are denied? i just dont understand why we cant get this right.
and when it comes to marriage issue, i'm doubly stumped. because i cant see anyway someone marrying anyone else has ANYTHING at all to do with me. marriage is hard enough. if same sex couples want the right to ATTEMPT to live with one person for the rest of their lives, then i say go for it. are we worried they will be more successful at it than straight couples? because they cant get much worse! are we threatened by the idea that their "marriage" example will somehow differ from the traditional one? and if so, so what? how many different religions are there, again? a million?? you know why? because a bunch of different someone's didnt agree with the original interpretation. how is that any different? we demand religious freedom. because its original parameters were too narrowly defined. and this differs from marriage how?
What a happy and holy fashion it is that those who love one another should rest on the same pillow. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
we are all different. we should embrace those differences. not attempt to label and restrict them. some of the best and longest "partnerships" i have witnessed have been of the same sex variety. why those relationships can not be defined as marriage completely escapes me. because really what is marriage but a commitment. any 2 people willing to make that commitment should be applauded. its not easy. it requires dedication. and tremendous patience. and vast amounts of love. it does not require a penis or a vagina.
God created sex. Priests created marriage. ~Voltaire
i know i wont change anyone's mind out there. but i hope i can at least make you stop and think. someday, there is going to be another assinine rule that says something like, only right handed people can get married, because we all know the "devil" sits on the left side (yes, i had a nun tell me that). think about that. think about what it would mean to you, or your children, if someone arbitrarily denied them the right to do something that didnt affect anyone else in any way. someone, somewhere just decided it was scary, or offensive....when do we say enough is enough to ALL discrimination. equal rights are not just for those you agree with. we shouldnt get to pick and choose. we are supposed to live in a "free" society. but we wont truly be free until we stop trying to hold people down. open minds & open hearts dont allow for discrimination. and if there is one thing i truly believe about life and religion, its this: "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love" 1 Cor 13:13.
If two stand shoulder to shoulder against the gods,
Happy together, the gods themselves are helpless
Against them while they stand so.
~Maxwell Anderson
<3
ReplyDelete