Equality for All Americans ... Unless You're Gay

What does it mean to have equality in the United States? Does it mean having equal rights? What about equality under the law? The U.S. likes to proclaim that it is the greatest example of how a government should be run because "All Men Are Created Equal." However, we all know our history and know that we have not always upheld that standard. For example, regarding voting, you were only equal if you were white and owned land; then if you were white; then if you were male; then finally if you were an American. Unfortunately, regarding other rights, such as marriage, we are woefully behind a lot of countries. The reason is that if you are a homosexual, you don't have the same rights as a heterosexual does, specifically in the areas of marriage. It is an attitude that America needs to reverse, and soon.

So, why should America change its opinion on gay rights, specifically dealing with marriage? The reason for this is historical. When I think back to the civil rights movements and see white American's bigotry towards African-American's I am embarrassed. I am embarrassed by our country's history towards Africa-American's and Women. The way we treated those individuals is an embarrassment that we have struggled with as the country; because we are suppose to be a symbol for freedom for all. This is the way we are going to look at gay rights in the future. We as American's are going to look back on our attitudes and say 'how could people act that way, that is embarrassing.'

What baffles me the most is how most American's want to define what Marriage is. This is beyond semantics and reasonability. How can someone say, "Well, I support civil unions, but not marriage." HOW! It doesn't make any sense. Let's look to the definitions of civil unions. According to the on-line Merriam-Webster dictionary, civil union is defined as "the legal status that ensures to same-sex couples specified rights and responsibilities of married couples." So, a civil union is the same thing as a marriage, it's just used specifically to segregate same-sex couples away from heterosexual couples. It is all semantics. American's support the phrase 'civil-union' on a much higher degree than 'marriage.' People think of marriage as a sacred institute between a man and women. However, how sacred is it? Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce, adultery is rampant, more and more kids are growing up with one parent. It looks like men and women have done a pretty good job of dismantling what was left of marriage.

Secondly, the argument that same-sex marriage is going to somehow 'destroy' a heterosexual marriage. This is almost as bad as the semantics of civil unions. My wife and I personally know quite a few homosexuals and some of them are married. Our marriage has not gotten an ounce weaker; in fact, I would almost say that our marriage has gotten stronger over the past years. Anyone who says that someone else's marriage is going to hurt their own marriage probably doesn't have that strong of a marriage to start with.

Finally, there is the religious aspect that is used to argue against gay marriage. I am a bit baffled by this argument. You may personally be opposed to gay marriage but let me ask you a question: if the government allows for homosexuals to be married, is the Catholic Church or Baptists going to suddenly allow homosexual marriages in their churches? The answer is clearly no! So why are churches fighting against gay marriage so hard? If they don't want to perform gay marriages, they don't have to. That is the beautiful thing about America: the government cannot tell the church how to run their organization. Therefore, why are churches trying to tell the government what to do? Keep it separate. If the churches don't want to perform gay marriages, then they don't have to.

So, why are people so against gay marriage. To me, it doesn't make sense and in fifty years, we are going to look back and be ashamed of this part of our history. It is going to end up being just like the civil rights movement. Hopefully, people can stop being so emotional about marriage and realizing that we are using semantics and a flawed logic of the 'sacredness' of marriage to defend our attitudes. Realize that if we want to be considered the beacon of freedom to the rest of the world, we need to provide equality under the law to all of our citizens, not just the ones we want. Regardless of your beliefs regarding homosexuality, the fact that we discriminate against them goes against the very principals of our society.