5.27.2012

LGBT Rights Are Just That... Rights

A little bit late to the game on this, but here's the point about same-sex marriage that gets obfuscated in whatever pathetic attempts at "debate" on cable news: marriage with respect to civil code (i.e. the state) has nothing whatsoever to do with religion. The rights and privileges pertaining to a married couple exist by virtue of law, not religion. If particular religions frown upon homosexuality (because they apparently misunderstood Jesus, Muhammad, or Yahweh), they have every right to do so, and to restrict religious marriage to heterosexual couples; why they would want to do that, I really don't know, but they have that right. But under the law, marriage is a strictly secular contract between two individuals who choose to commit their lives and property to each other, and, in accordance with the law, be admitted to certain rights and privileges to which as individuals they had not been privy. Now, name another legal contract the eligibility to which rests on sexual orientation. The contract between the armed forces and an enlistee used to be one, but thankfully Pres. Obama relegated that to where it belongs: the dustbin of history. Marriage should be no different. Let particular religions do what they will, but the state has no business granting special status to two individuals who love each other and are willing to commit everything to one another only on the basis of their heterosexuality. Either the rights and privileges accruing to marriage apply to all individuals willing to enter into that contractual obligation or they apply to none. Rights are rights. DOMA is unconstitutional and will be overturned. And I will live to see the day where I can marry a man if that's with whom I fall in love in every state in the country.

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