amazing
So, my two cousins absolutely amaze me. Melanie's myspace is splattered with pictures of rainbows saying she is straight, but supports gay marriage, straight but not narrow, etc. Mark is quite intelligent, taking physics when he is only like 17, along with many other classes that would prove his intelligence. He is also very well spoken and often does long blog entries about pressing issues. Here is his latest. PS. they are from Massachussetts, born and raised. surprised? nope.
Gay Marriage
What's this you ask? Two blog entries within a two week span by Mark? Your eyes are not deceiving you! It is a second blog! WOOO! I'm sure five of you will read this, and two will go on to read the rest, but I need to say it. So, I was watching "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday night (Great show, 11:00 PM HBO for those of you interested) and D.L Hughley was on. He made a lot of great points throughout the show and at the end they were talking about The Oscars, and inevitabely "Brokeback Mountain" came up. Well, he said he didn't see it because he couldn't see how two men could love each other like that. Well, this inspired me to make a blog on gay marriage....why it's taken me until Monday to write it is a mystery, but here I am. Unlike abortion, this is one of those issues where I believe the only appropriate side to take is the pro-gay marriage side. Unlike abortion, I don't believe this topic has no good counter argument as to why it should be illegal, and that is what I am here to prove...along with my arguments for why it should be legal, and why it will be within 25 years.
As you all know, I am a liberal, and a common liberal belief is that gay marriage should be legal. Not all liberals believe this, but the majority do, and I am a part of that majority. There are a lot of arguments as to why gay marriage should remain illegal, and up to now they've worked pretty well....but what else would you respect with a bunch of aging Christian white men? Unless I'm missing any of the usual arguments for the opposers of gay marriage, the arguments can be summed up in three categories: Religion, Tradition, Immaturity/Intolerance
Religion- This is the big argument, and the one that all the Bible thumpers have used as to why gay marriage should be banned. The three "mainstream" religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) all oppose gay marriage and comdemn homosexuality. And since I've discussed me feelings of people eating up whatever the Church says, many people just recycle that garbage in conversations and look like asses. If you can point out to me a passage in the Bible that CLEARLY states "Gays can't get married" do so. And, even if there were such a passage, why should that matter? Do you know what else the Bible says? A lot of crap. You shall be struck down if you The Bible never condemns slavery, but only says how slaves should be treated. Does that mean that slavery should be legal? The Bible does say that homosexuality is a sin...but so is cursing, laziness, jealousy, etc. I don't believe that homosexuality is a sin, and I think a lot of what the Bible says is Bullshit, but if it were a sin, it would be no worse than being jealous of something or someone...because the Bible does not treat homosexuality as a higher kind of sin, like murder or adultery. But, again...so what if it was a huge sin in the Bible? Why should that matter in this country; a free country that supposedly has seperation of Church and State? If we're going to make gay marriage illegal because the Bible doesn't like butt sex, than shouldn't adultery be illegal, along with jealousy, lying, laziness, believing in any other God etc.? In this country none of those things should be illegal, including gay marriage, but you could make the case. If you want gay marriage illegal because the Bible might not like it, you should call your local congressmen and tell them to come up with a bill to make jealousy illegal. Get some thought police, because the Gospels might not like it if you are jealous of the car down the street. It's absurd. You might think I'm exagerating here, but it all makes sense doesn't it? You know why those things aren't illegal? Because this isn't a crazy theocracy....therefore gay marriage should not be illegal either. You're denying two consenting adults the right of marriage because your religion (which should have NOTHING to do with your legal and constitutional battles) might not agree with it. Besides, not everyone is of the same reason. Why should two Agnostics be denied the right of marriage because a STRAIGHT Christian man doesn't want them to based on a religion that they don't even follow! There is absolutely no reason to ban gay marriage that has anything to do with religion. I dare you to find one.
Tradition- Tradition? There are so many things wrong with wanting to ban gay marriage because of "tradition" that it goes beyond the realm of belief. Tell me....from the beginning of this country through the end of the civil war, what was legal in this country? That's right, slavery. Slavery my friends was legal and...why, I guess you could call it a tradition. We banned slavery because it was wrong and immoral (even though the Bible didn't have a problem with it), and didn't let the fact that it was a "tradition" get in the way. I guess oppressing women was also a tradition along with segregation. You know, interracial marriage was once illegal as well. In fact, it wasn't until 1967 that all bans on interracial marriage were erased by the Supreme Court. How about marital rape? In this country marital rape wasn't even thought about as being a crime until the 1970s, and it wasn't until 1993 when it was officially a crime in all 50 states. I know marital rape is much worse than the illegalization of gay marriage, but it was a "tradition" until the 1980s and 90s. The only difference is that the fact that only straights could get married is still a "tradition" and we haven't realized that it's wrong to have that. It's a tradition, but as I proved above....traditions often times are not a good thing. Denying gays the right of happiness in marraige (along with the medical and legal benefits it provides) is one of those longstanding traditions that must be broken.
Immaturity / Intolerance- This is a good one, and it's the one that prevent those among us who can't think for any reason at all...you know...teenagers. You're probably going to run into many, many more teenagers who say "that's gross" than you are adults....adults are just more mature that way. What better excuse is there for denying one happiness and medical assurance than "that's gross" or even better "eww". Well, believe it or not, that is the sole excuse for so many uneducated, ignorant folk in this land. There's a differene between saying "Well, God doesn't want it that way" which is not intolerant and saying "That's nasty and sick", which is intolerance. There really isn't much to say about this section other than it is considered an actual excuse for why gay marriage should be illegal...sad but true.
Okay, now that I've described the reasons for why people think gay marriage should be illegal, I am going to move on to my reason why it SHOULD be legal.
First question: why shouldn't it be? Like I stated above, there really is no good reason for why it should be illegal, but people continue to use those excuses and dumber people continue to eat them up. I know I already explained this, but I'll just mention it again; Seperation of Church in State....this is not a Theocracy. We don't have an official religion of this nation...we are not a Christian nation. We do not create laws based on religion, and gay marriage should be no exception. And God doesn't hate gay people...God loves everyone. Isn't that the basic teaching of all who believe in God? That is the problem with religion. Religious teaching aren't bad...peace, love, help the poor, etc. It's the people whp practice and teach the religion that pervert it.
Secondly, whose business is it whether or not two consenting men or women want to get married. It certainly is no business of mine, and it's no business of any of the politicians in Washington that vote on this kind of thing, unless you're gay. Barney Frank (D-MA) was the first openyl gay member of congress, and he is one of very few who have a right to say whether or not it should be legal or illegal in Washington. Bill Frist (Senate majority leader, R-TN) has no right to say whether or not gays should marry because he's a straight man...it will not effect him at all. And by the way.....how would gay marriage effect any of us? Honestly. Gay marriage will, in no way, shape or form, effect anyone else's marriage. Because Steve and Joe down the street are married does not mean Steve and Joanne are going to get divorced. It has no effect on you! You're just aopposed to it for stupid reasons that you don't even know how to explain. Why do people think it's between a man and a woman? They always say it, but they can rarely back it up with anything worth listening to. It's nobody else's business. When Chris and Anne want to get married, strangers 3000 milles away don't care, so why should said strangers care when Steve marries Al? They shouldn't, because it will effect them in the same way: not at all.
Thirdly, it has health care benefits and everything. When you are not married you can not have your boyfriend or girlfriend's heath benefits...so a lot of gay men and women (30%) are without health care...possibly because they can't afford it....but they might have it if they're spouse had it....but since they can't have spouses, that's a problem. Marriage would bring about better health benefits. I am a proponent of universal health care, but since we don't have that, we have to deal with our seriously flawed system for now. That's why many suggest civil unions, which would have all of the same legal benefits (including tax relief) as marriage...it would just have a different name) Well, what the hell good does that do? If you're going to do everything except call it marriage....come on...that's being picky, and downright stupid.
Now that's I've summed up all sides of the debate, I am going to put forth my proof for why I think gay marriage will be legal within 25 years. It might be legal in a few states here and there before then (Vermont, New Jersey, New York, California possibly?) bot for now it's just Massachusetts. Here are the current stats in our country:
Gay Marriage- 1 state- Massachusetts
Civil Unions- 7 states- Vermont, Maine, Connecticut, Maryland, California, Hawaii and Washington D.C
Here is the current status worldwide:
Gay Marriage- 4 nations- Canada, The Netherlands, Spain and Belgium
Civil Unions or other recognition- 21 nations (Don't feel like naming all, but it includes Germany, France, parts of Australia, parts of Italy, South Africa, Ireland etc.)
Now, that may not seem like a lot, but this has all happened since 1989. Within 16 years (going through 2005 here) gay marriage of legal recognition and benefits (I.E civil unions) have been established in parts of 3 nations and in all of 19 nations. That's pretty good. I happen to believe that within 25 years this country will have gay marriage and many, many, many other countries as well....it's all about evolving as people. 50 years ago there was still segregation, interracial marriage was not legal, and all sorts of other civil rights violations were going on. As time moves on, people do too. This generation already looks like they're much more accepting to gays than any previous generation....in fact, I have no doubt of it. Most of us don't see gay people as freaks and outcasts....we see them as people.
Here are some poll results:
"...findings were released as part of a sweeping survey of high school attitudes on homosexuality conducted by MTV, Zogby International and Hamilton College...."
* 71 percent support the right of gays to serve as scoutmasters.
* 88 percent support legislation to protect gays from hate crimes.
* 68 percent support adoption by gay and lesbian couples.
* 79 percent support gay employment anti-discrimination laws.
* 76 percent of evangelical Christian students oppose gay marriage.
"In the latest U.S. poll, approval of same-sex marriage varies by age and region:
• 61% of those age 18-29 said homosexual marriages should be valid, while only 37% of those age 30-49 felt the same."
And that 18-29 age group is the next group that is going to be in charge. In 25 years the current 18-29 year old group will be 43-54. Even without the polls....if you go around your school and ask kids if they support gay marriage I guarantee you the number will be higher than any other age group. It's just a fact. People move on, people's minds evolve and they realize that things like this were stupid to argue about. 50 years ago we'll look back at this battle and look at it with the same sense of "What were we thinking...why was it ever illegal" as we now look back at interracial marriage.
Gay Marriage
What's this you ask? Two blog entries within a two week span by Mark? Your eyes are not deceiving you! It is a second blog! WOOO! I'm sure five of you will read this, and two will go on to read the rest, but I need to say it. So, I was watching "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday night (Great show, 11:00 PM HBO for those of you interested) and D.L Hughley was on. He made a lot of great points throughout the show and at the end they were talking about The Oscars, and inevitabely "Brokeback Mountain" came up. Well, he said he didn't see it because he couldn't see how two men could love each other like that. Well, this inspired me to make a blog on gay marriage....why it's taken me until Monday to write it is a mystery, but here I am. Unlike abortion, this is one of those issues where I believe the only appropriate side to take is the pro-gay marriage side. Unlike abortion, I don't believe this topic has no good counter argument as to why it should be illegal, and that is what I am here to prove...along with my arguments for why it should be legal, and why it will be within 25 years.
As you all know, I am a liberal, and a common liberal belief is that gay marriage should be legal. Not all liberals believe this, but the majority do, and I am a part of that majority. There are a lot of arguments as to why gay marriage should remain illegal, and up to now they've worked pretty well....but what else would you respect with a bunch of aging Christian white men? Unless I'm missing any of the usual arguments for the opposers of gay marriage, the arguments can be summed up in three categories: Religion, Tradition, Immaturity/Intolerance
Religion- This is the big argument, and the one that all the Bible thumpers have used as to why gay marriage should be banned. The three "mainstream" religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) all oppose gay marriage and comdemn homosexuality. And since I've discussed me feelings of people eating up whatever the Church says, many people just recycle that garbage in conversations and look like asses. If you can point out to me a passage in the Bible that CLEARLY states "Gays can't get married" do so. And, even if there were such a passage, why should that matter? Do you know what else the Bible says? A lot of crap. You shall be struck down if you The Bible never condemns slavery, but only says how slaves should be treated. Does that mean that slavery should be legal? The Bible does say that homosexuality is a sin...but so is cursing, laziness, jealousy, etc. I don't believe that homosexuality is a sin, and I think a lot of what the Bible says is Bullshit, but if it were a sin, it would be no worse than being jealous of something or someone...because the Bible does not treat homosexuality as a higher kind of sin, like murder or adultery. But, again...so what if it was a huge sin in the Bible? Why should that matter in this country; a free country that supposedly has seperation of Church and State? If we're going to make gay marriage illegal because the Bible doesn't like butt sex, than shouldn't adultery be illegal, along with jealousy, lying, laziness, believing in any other God etc.? In this country none of those things should be illegal, including gay marriage, but you could make the case. If you want gay marriage illegal because the Bible might not like it, you should call your local congressmen and tell them to come up with a bill to make jealousy illegal. Get some thought police, because the Gospels might not like it if you are jealous of the car down the street. It's absurd. You might think I'm exagerating here, but it all makes sense doesn't it? You know why those things aren't illegal? Because this isn't a crazy theocracy....therefore gay marriage should not be illegal either. You're denying two consenting adults the right of marriage because your religion (which should have NOTHING to do with your legal and constitutional battles) might not agree with it. Besides, not everyone is of the same reason. Why should two Agnostics be denied the right of marriage because a STRAIGHT Christian man doesn't want them to based on a religion that they don't even follow! There is absolutely no reason to ban gay marriage that has anything to do with religion. I dare you to find one.
Tradition- Tradition? There are so many things wrong with wanting to ban gay marriage because of "tradition" that it goes beyond the realm of belief. Tell me....from the beginning of this country through the end of the civil war, what was legal in this country? That's right, slavery. Slavery my friends was legal and...why, I guess you could call it a tradition. We banned slavery because it was wrong and immoral (even though the Bible didn't have a problem with it), and didn't let the fact that it was a "tradition" get in the way. I guess oppressing women was also a tradition along with segregation. You know, interracial marriage was once illegal as well. In fact, it wasn't until 1967 that all bans on interracial marriage were erased by the Supreme Court. How about marital rape? In this country marital rape wasn't even thought about as being a crime until the 1970s, and it wasn't until 1993 when it was officially a crime in all 50 states. I know marital rape is much worse than the illegalization of gay marriage, but it was a "tradition" until the 1980s and 90s. The only difference is that the fact that only straights could get married is still a "tradition" and we haven't realized that it's wrong to have that. It's a tradition, but as I proved above....traditions often times are not a good thing. Denying gays the right of happiness in marraige (along with the medical and legal benefits it provides) is one of those longstanding traditions that must be broken.
Immaturity / Intolerance- This is a good one, and it's the one that prevent those among us who can't think for any reason at all...you know...teenagers. You're probably going to run into many, many more teenagers who say "that's gross" than you are adults....adults are just more mature that way. What better excuse is there for denying one happiness and medical assurance than "that's gross" or even better "eww". Well, believe it or not, that is the sole excuse for so many uneducated, ignorant folk in this land. There's a differene between saying "Well, God doesn't want it that way" which is not intolerant and saying "That's nasty and sick", which is intolerance. There really isn't much to say about this section other than it is considered an actual excuse for why gay marriage should be illegal...sad but true.
Okay, now that I've described the reasons for why people think gay marriage should be illegal, I am going to move on to my reason why it SHOULD be legal.
First question: why shouldn't it be? Like I stated above, there really is no good reason for why it should be illegal, but people continue to use those excuses and dumber people continue to eat them up. I know I already explained this, but I'll just mention it again; Seperation of Church in State....this is not a Theocracy. We don't have an official religion of this nation...we are not a Christian nation. We do not create laws based on religion, and gay marriage should be no exception. And God doesn't hate gay people...God loves everyone. Isn't that the basic teaching of all who believe in God? That is the problem with religion. Religious teaching aren't bad...peace, love, help the poor, etc. It's the people whp practice and teach the religion that pervert it.
Secondly, whose business is it whether or not two consenting men or women want to get married. It certainly is no business of mine, and it's no business of any of the politicians in Washington that vote on this kind of thing, unless you're gay. Barney Frank (D-MA) was the first openyl gay member of congress, and he is one of very few who have a right to say whether or not it should be legal or illegal in Washington. Bill Frist (Senate majority leader, R-TN) has no right to say whether or not gays should marry because he's a straight man...it will not effect him at all. And by the way.....how would gay marriage effect any of us? Honestly. Gay marriage will, in no way, shape or form, effect anyone else's marriage. Because Steve and Joe down the street are married does not mean Steve and Joanne are going to get divorced. It has no effect on you! You're just aopposed to it for stupid reasons that you don't even know how to explain. Why do people think it's between a man and a woman? They always say it, but they can rarely back it up with anything worth listening to. It's nobody else's business. When Chris and Anne want to get married, strangers 3000 milles away don't care, so why should said strangers care when Steve marries Al? They shouldn't, because it will effect them in the same way: not at all.
Thirdly, it has health care benefits and everything. When you are not married you can not have your boyfriend or girlfriend's heath benefits...so a lot of gay men and women (30%) are without health care...possibly because they can't afford it....but they might have it if they're spouse had it....but since they can't have spouses, that's a problem. Marriage would bring about better health benefits. I am a proponent of universal health care, but since we don't have that, we have to deal with our seriously flawed system for now. That's why many suggest civil unions, which would have all of the same legal benefits (including tax relief) as marriage...it would just have a different name) Well, what the hell good does that do? If you're going to do everything except call it marriage....come on...that's being picky, and downright stupid.
Now that's I've summed up all sides of the debate, I am going to put forth my proof for why I think gay marriage will be legal within 25 years. It might be legal in a few states here and there before then (Vermont, New Jersey, New York, California possibly?) bot for now it's just Massachusetts. Here are the current stats in our country:
Gay Marriage- 1 state- Massachusetts
Civil Unions- 7 states- Vermont, Maine, Connecticut, Maryland, California, Hawaii and Washington D.C
Here is the current status worldwide:
Gay Marriage- 4 nations- Canada, The Netherlands, Spain and Belgium
Civil Unions or other recognition- 21 nations (Don't feel like naming all, but it includes Germany, France, parts of Australia, parts of Italy, South Africa, Ireland etc.)
Now, that may not seem like a lot, but this has all happened since 1989. Within 16 years (going through 2005 here) gay marriage of legal recognition and benefits (I.E civil unions) have been established in parts of 3 nations and in all of 19 nations. That's pretty good. I happen to believe that within 25 years this country will have gay marriage and many, many, many other countries as well....it's all about evolving as people. 50 years ago there was still segregation, interracial marriage was not legal, and all sorts of other civil rights violations were going on. As time moves on, people do too. This generation already looks like they're much more accepting to gays than any previous generation....in fact, I have no doubt of it. Most of us don't see gay people as freaks and outcasts....we see them as people.
Here are some poll results:
"...findings were released as part of a sweeping survey of high school attitudes on homosexuality conducted by MTV, Zogby International and Hamilton College...."
* 71 percent support the right of gays to serve as scoutmasters.
* 88 percent support legislation to protect gays from hate crimes.
* 68 percent support adoption by gay and lesbian couples.
* 79 percent support gay employment anti-discrimination laws.
* 76 percent of evangelical Christian students oppose gay marriage.
"In the latest U.S. poll, approval of same-sex marriage varies by age and region:
• 61% of those age 18-29 said homosexual marriages should be valid, while only 37% of those age 30-49 felt the same."
And that 18-29 age group is the next group that is going to be in charge. In 25 years the current 18-29 year old group will be 43-54. Even without the polls....if you go around your school and ask kids if they support gay marriage I guarantee you the number will be higher than any other age group. It's just a fact. People move on, people's minds evolve and they realize that things like this were stupid to argue about. 50 years ago we'll look back at this battle and look at it with the same sense of "What were we thinking...why was it ever illegal" as we now look back at interracial marriage.