The Definition Of Marriage

The issue of gay marriage has become an issue that is dividing America. Seems you can't turn on the news with listening to some right wing nut job talk about how the definition of marriage is so important to maintain. It seems like the news networks are giving a voice to hate groups, who claim not to be hate groups, but defenders of the concept of marriage.

I have a very hard time believing that the definition of a word is so important to the anti-gay marriage folk. I wonder why the definition of a word is so important that you would deprive gay people the very American idea of life, liberty and the persuit of happiness. Are these people employed by the dictionary industry? Are they afraid that Mr. Webster will roll over in his grave because we are changing the definition of one precious little word?

I don't think the definition of the word marriage has anything to do with the issue at hand. I would even dare to say that anyone who uses that ridiculous arguement is lying. I believe that people who oppose gay marriage, oppose gay marriage for an entirely different idea all together. It would be too honest to come right out and say gay people are disgusting, sexual perverts. You can't come right out and call a group of people scum. Very few people in the anti gay marriage movement will come out and say that the gays make Jesus sick. You would sound like a nut if you say that God throws up a little bit every time he sees two boys sharing a kiss. However, this it what many people in this country believe.

I myself had anti gay feelings at one time. I grew up in a small town where the gays stayed in the closet like a good gay man should. I never saw gay men or lesbians holding hands in public. The gay kids I went to school with stayed in the closet, afraid of what people would think and do to them. My homosexual friends kept their life a secret because they were afraid of what people would say or do to them. They were right. If they would have come out, they would have been treated like perverted freaks.

Eventually, I grew up and became and adult. So did my gay friends. My gay friends realized they didn't have to hide who they were. They didn't have to keep their lives secret so that straight America felt more comfortable. Soon I realized that being gay was not a choice one made, sexual orientation is assigned at birth. No one hits the age of twelve, sits down at a table with a piece of paper to make a pro and con list of being gay. If that were the case, no one would choose to be gay because the consequence of being a gay person in America would be more than one could handle. No one would choose to alienate their friends and family. Not every gay person suffers this kind of oppression, but you will be hard pressed to find a gay person who has never heard ugly anti-gay speech directed their way at one time or the other.

The heart of the argument tends to come down to one thing. The Holy Bible. You see, there is a story in the Bible about a man named Lot who lived near the cities of Sodom and Gommorah. Sodom and Gommorah were evil cities evidently populated by the gays! One day Lot was visited by Angels, and when the people of the city found out that Lot had visitors, a mob formed who wanted to go and rape Lots friends. However Lot did not want give up the Angels to the mob, instead he thought it would be a good idea to give up his daughters for rape. After all, they were only women! I find it strange that Christian people would find anything useful from this story. If we are looking for truth, one would think that we would come to the conclusion that women were worthless life forms to be thrown to the mob to satisfy man lust for mass orgies.

I've never met any gay people who raped anyone. The gay people I meet are law abiding citizens who would never rape anyone, and would never want to have anything to do with some guys daughter. What kind of gay men were these who wanted to bang young girls? They must have been super gays in that city of Sodom and/or Gommorah! Maybe I'm a little stupid, but I don't see how one can read this Old Testament story and apply it to the world today.

In the end, it is the religious right who is leading the charge against the gays. As a Christian person, it is difficult to hear the lies that are told in the name of Christ. The Christian right will tell you they don't want the gays to marry because of the children. They believe that the children will be influenced to be gay if gay parents are out there telling the children that being gay is normal. It is funny to me to think that the Christian right believes that peoples sexuality can be influenced because someone presents a good argument. I would say that straight people can not be convinced to be gay anymore than a gay person can be convinced to be straight. I would say that anyone who believes that, is a little afraid of the gay feelings they may be suppressing.

That is not the only lie being spread by the Christian right. These people would prevent gays from teaching schools, even though it's a proven fact that the majority of child molesters in this country claim to be heterosexual. The fact is that most of the arguments against gays and lesbians are based upon fear, ignorance and belief in a book that is thousands of years old. How many beliefs do we cling to from the bronze age? Do we still believe the world is flat and that the universe revolves around the earth. Believe it or not, to believe that universe revolved around the sun was seen as blasphemy by the Catholic church only a few centuries ago. The leaders of the church were wrong then, and they are on the wrong side of this issue today.

It is time to take a hard look at our country, and why we believe the things we do. To say that our founding fathers were all Christian and this is a Christian society is a lie. Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin believed that organized religion was a plague on society. Yes, the Puritans landed on Plymouth Rock, however we did not become a Puritan society. If the church does not hold to the belief that all men are created equal, and all citizens should have the same rights under the constitution, then the church has no place in creating policy or governing. If the church cant have a basic respect for people of other faiths and beliefs, then the church should not have influence on the system of law that every American must live under. If the church leadership doesn't believe in the golden rule, and love your neighbor, then the church is lost. Why does the church have so much pull in our society anyway? According to most polls, only about 38% of Americans go to church on a regular basis anyway (the figures fluctuate depending upon whether our country suffers a natural disaster or terrorist attack).

Fortunately the Christian right is not the voice of the majority of Americans or the majority of Christians. Many Christians actually do care about people, and are not so concerned about what the loud mouth right has to say. The majority of Americans want there to be a real debate, with real ideas for solutions. What people don't want, and what the country can not have, are baseless argument built up lies and prejudice. This is an issue of peoples rights as Americans. There is no room for lies and hatred. There is no room in the discussions for arguments that are based on fear and prejudice of people that seem to be a little different. It is time for America to grow up!