American War on Equality

In America, all people are created equal. This seems a no-brainer. And yet, there exist in America an underclass of second-class citizens. They pay the same taxes as everyone else, but have fewer rights; this is legal and codified within the law. Ten percent of Americans live with a different set of rights, not equal, not fair, and not offset by lower taxes. I am a second class citizen in my own country. I am gay.

There are many reasons why this state of affairs exists, but we are going to chase it down to the irreducible. Gays are not accepted as full members in American society because many Christians believe that they are somehow lesser creatures. They believe that homosexuality is a choice, and a sin. And to prove their point, they are willing to turn to their ultimate authority on such matters, the Bible.

Sadly, they are wrong.

The Bible does not say what most Christians think it does. Let us enumerate their arguments, drawn from the Good Book: one being Sodom and Gomorrah, followed by "Leviticus" (18:22 and 20:13), "Romans" (1:18-32), and four being "1 Corinthians" (6:9-10) and "1 Timothy" (1:9-10).

First, let us examine the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lott entertained angels in his home, and the people of Sodom wanted him to give them over so they might "know them." This is a clear reference to homosexuality, right? Um, no. Note what Lott was willing to do, to give over his virgin daughters to the crowd to protect his guests. Did Lott know they were angels? No. They were simply men who were his guests. And that is the crime-inhospitality. Exposure at night could lead to death in the desert cultures of the time. The entire region had a social imperative to protect the traveler-to be a good host. That was the law that the men of Sodom broke.

Secondly, let us consider "Leviticus," collectively. Yes, it states clearly in TheBible that men shall not have sex with men, that it is an unclean act. By this, they mean an Un-Jewish act. "Leviticus" 11:2-8 speaks of the cloven hoofed animals that do not chew the cud as being unclean. Did you have bacon at breakfast? Do you eat a Christmas Ham? Then you too are unclean. "Leviticus" 21: 5 prohibits shaving the head, or trimming the corner of the beard, or making any cuttings of the flesh. I guess all bald men with goatees and piercings are going to hell, then. "Leviticus," and indeed all the Old Testament, are JEWISH law; they are the covenant of the Jews and G*d. Christians have a New Covenant, and that is the source of THEIR law. It is amazing to me how many Christians want to go through the Old Testament, and pick and choose what lines they will follow, and which they will ignore. There is a word for this practice. It is Heresy. It is a sin. You either live by the whole of the law (the life of a Hasidic Jew) or you do not have to be bound to any part of it. You can't have it both ways.

Thirdly, "Romans" 1:18-32. Here is where we really have to start looking at the language, and its translations. The issue here is not that the people were having homosexual sex, but that they had displeased G*d with their sinful ways, and so G*d gave them up to their passions. It also contains the only reference to Lesbianism in the Bible. First, let's get the word "Unnatural" out of the way. In the sense that Paul uses it, it is unnatural in exactly the same way that God grafting the Gentiles onto the Olive of the Faithful (Jews) was "unnatural" meaning, un-customary, not Against Nature. The G*d of Abraham was not known as being an inclusive sort of fellow until this point. Against Nature, that is the Greek Stoic use of the word, and Paul certainly did not mean it that way. Now, let's look at the terms "ungodliness" (asebeia) and "wickedness" (adikia) one is a Moral issue (Asebeia or ungodliness) and the other is a social issue (Adikia or wickedness) Paul does not use Asebeia to refer to the homosexual acts of the Romans, but Adikia- this is an important distinction. This is the difference between "sinful" and "icky." Lastly on this portion of the scripture, I will point out that the Romans were already sinful, and G*d turned them gay. This is the only case in the history of the world where someone actually changed their sexual orientation, and it was G*d who was responsible, and he turned them gay, not straight.

Lastly, "1 Corinthians" 6:9-10, "1 Timothy" 1: 9-10. This is another one of those failings of St. Jerome. We will be looking at the original Greek malakoi and arsenokoitai.

Malakoi has no specific homosexual connotation. Arsenokoitai does. Specifically, it condemns wanton, lewd, irresponsible same sex acts, but not same sex acts in general. Before the sixteenth century, Malakoi was translated to mean "masturbators". Today, Arsenokoitai is translated "practicing homosexual." Is it strange how an ancient text exactly fits into a decision in the Catholic Church made in 1970?

In point of fact, the word at the time had much more in common with the word "pedophile." The Cult of Ishtar made money by offering up temple prostitutes. If you had an itch, you could go to the temple, give them a sheckle, and rugger a prepubescent boy. Now I think we can all agree that is a sin. Yet that was the world that Paul lived in, and it was these sins of EXPLOITATION he was addressing.

Now, having addressed the Biblical concerns about homosexuality, and refraining from throwing up the case of Jonathon and David as an example of positive homosexuality in The Bible, I turn to how all this affects those who should, and those who shouldn't have full citizenship in America.

It doesn't make a DAMN BIT OF DIFFERENCE. The first amendment of the Constitution gives us the freedom to practice our religion, and gives us freedom from having others make us practice theirs. No argument based on Biblical text has any place in determining who should have what rights in this country.

Now America is poised on a tipping point. Six states currently have gay marriage or Civil Unions. Michigan and Virginia have constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage, Civil Unions, and any other arrangement that could be construed as marriage. Nebraska, Arkansas, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah, Kansas, Texas, Alabama, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Florida ban both gay marriage and civil unions. Alaska, Nevada, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Colorado, Tennessee, Arizona, and California ban gay marriage, though California has 18,000 gay couples who are legally married, having been legally married before Proposition 8 voted away their rights. Think about that . . . voted away their rights. Hawaii, which almost passed gay marriage, has the right to constitutionally restrict marriage to opposite sex couples, but has not exercised that right. That is thirty states. Thirty states have legally codified ten percent of their population to the status of second class citizens.

And the cost is more than in marriage. If you are married, you can be carried on your spouse's insurance. Not if you are a gay couple. Here are two lifetime scenarios-one, the best case, where both men have $70,000 incomes. The cost of paying for private insurance for one of them is $28,595. Worst case, where one partner makes $110,000, and the other $30,000, the cost to give both equal coverage over a lifetime is $211,993.

Here are some of the 1400 special rights and privileges being married get you:

Typically, here are some of the 1400 special rights and privileges, composed of about 400 state benefits and over 1,000 federal benefits being married gets you: joint parenting, joint adoption, joint foster care, custody, and visitation (including non-biological parents), status as next-of-kin for hospital visits and medical decisions where one partner is too ill to be competent, joint insurance policies for home, auto and health, dissolution and divorce protections such as community property and child support, immigration and residency for partners from other countries, inheritance automatically in the absence of a will, joint leases with automatic renewal rights in the event one partner dies or leaves the house or apartment, inheritance of jointly-owned real and personal property through the right of survivorship (which avoids the time and expense and taxes in probate), benefits such as annuities, pension plans, Social Security, and Medicare, spousal exemptions to property tax increases upon the death of one partner who is a co-owner of the home, veterans' discounts on medical care, education, and home loans; joint filing of tax returns, joint filing of customs claims when traveling, wrongful death benefits for a surviving partner and children, bereavement or sick leave to care for a partner or child, decision-making power with respect to whether a deceased partner will be cremated or not and where to bury him or her, crime victims' recovery benefits, loss of consortium tort benefits, domestic violence protection orders, judicial protections and evidentiary immunity; and more . . . . It has been estimated that all these benefits automatically extended to straight couples will cost a gay couple $470,000 over a life time.

Further, if you take the legal route of reciprocal wills, power of attorney, power of person, living wills, et cetera, to legal protect yourself as far as the law will allow, it can cost you $10,000 in legal fees. I pay the same taxes as everyone else. Why am I receiving fewer benefits? Can I get a discount on my taxes? I didn't think so.

Here is a simple test; take any belief about how homosexuals should be treated, and substitute "blacks," "Jews," or "Muslims." Blacks should not be allowed to marry. Jews should not be allowed to serve in the military. Muslims should not be allowed to adopt. Actually, these are not perfect examples, because you have a choice to be a Jew or a Muslim. What about, "Women should not have the right to be insured under their partner's insurance?" "Left-handed people should not have the right to see the person they love in the hospital, nor make health decisions for them." Is that the American Way?

Now, here is the bottom line. In America, we should all have the same rights. This is a truth we have been moving towards. When this country was founded, we held these truths to be self evident; that all freeborn White Christian Men are created equal. If they own property, they can vote. Since that time, we have abolished slavery, opened the vote to all religions, opened the vote to women, passed the Civil Rights act, ending segregation of Blacks, passed legislation increasing women's protection under the law. Now it is time to take it the rest of the way, to include all people, to allow marriage, and military service to all our sons and daughters, not just the straight ones. This is America. We are all equal. And if anyone of us is not equal, it threatens all of us. If any of us is denied our rights, it threatens all our rights. And the time for change, the time for liberty, is always, IS ALWAYS, right now.