Gay Marriage: Happiness for All...or For Some

My mother is white and my father is black. In the year 2000, that is nothing very noteworthy, but in Florida in the 70's, it was still a wonder. They were physically threatened, driven off the road, called all kinds of racial slurs, had garbage thrown in their front yard all because they dared to love one another and to raise a family. They didn't let me know about these experiences until I was in college because they didn't want to taint my view of people at a young age. They raised me to love everyone, regardless of differences in color, faith or orientation. I was taught that everyone is deserving of love, respect and equal rights.

As I grew up, I learned on my own that not everyone was raised the way I was. As my parents did, I suffered my own slings and arrows but I still held the belief that people, as a whole, were loving, kind and fair. The older I get…the less I believe it. When I was a child, I was taught about discrimination and racism in History but I didn't understand it. I mean, why would you hate someone so much because their skin was a different color than yours? Why would you kill someone for loving someone of a different race? I didn't get it and to be honest, I still don't. You both have the same heart; you both breathe the same air, so why do you hate them just because their skin is darker?

The world has made progress in its treatment of African-American citizens since they were brought here in the 16th century. 1865, the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was introduced. 1868, the 14th gave due process and equal protection and 1870, with the 15th, gave everyone the right to vote. Over the next several decades, various laws were passed to both help and hinder civil rights. One of the most important to me, was the 1967 ruling (Loving v. Virginia) that said prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional. My parents were married less than a decade after that rule was overturned. People of every race and religion fought hard to grant not just African-American's, but all American's the same rights…so why, instead of going forward as a human race, are we going back to darker days.

There are many groups of people that are still fighting for equality, but the one so obviously being targeted and actively denied, are homosexuals. In decades past, being black was a crime, and you could forget having the same rights and privileges as whites. But now, if you're a homosexual, you can't expect to have the same rights and privileges as everyone else. Apparently you don't deserve the right to marry the individual that you love or raise children with them. And as much as I didn't understand racism, I understand this even less. Yet again, I must ask, why would you hate someone so much because their orientation is different that yours? Why would you kill them? What do they do, that makes them so undeserving of the basic rights and principles that were given to us all?

Over the past several months I have been reading article after article, from all over the USA, about legislation regarding homosexual marriage. And every article I have read has made me sad, angry, and ashamed. Every single time I read one, I feel embarrassed to be human. It's even worse when it is my own state that's approving such hateful legislation. If I could understand why this is such an issue to begin with, maybe I could relate more to it…but I can't. I've tried to understand but every time I think about it, all that comes to mind is "Who are we to say what someone can or cannot do? Who are we to say, 'You don't deserve marriage'?"

The Declaration of Independence so states: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. When this was written, they weren't talking about "all men". They were talking about white male landowners, as slaves and women had no rights. But over the course of the years we have taken it to truly mean "all people", to first include African-Americans, and then women. So I say, let us truly make it "all people" and include homosexuals, since we have separated them as something separate, as African-Americans and women once were. They deserve the same change at "life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". And if marriage and children, natural or adopted, are a part of that Happiness, than they deserve it.

I am appalled that we, as a people, feel that we have the right to deny a subset of our populace, their rights as so granted in our own Declaration of Independence. We fought to make this country free in 1776, and then we spent the next 300 or so years, denying various subsets of our populace those same rights that we fought and died for. I guess I wasn't raised that way so I don't understand why anyone would hate a group of people so much as to deny them Happiness…that seems cruel and heartless. To me, it's like saying to someone, that you are less than me, and don't deserve the same rights that I have. No one should have that kind of power over another human being.

I don't understand this and I hope I never do. I never want to be a person who hates another human being due to race, religion or orientation. I never want to be a person who believes it is my right to deny someone else their rights. My parents went through Hell, so they taught me to love and respect everyone without restriction. Not just to love people who meet these 10 requirements, but everyone, especially those who are different from me. I have friends and family from different races, religions and sexual orientations, and I am honored and proud of that fact. One day, when I have children, I will teach them the same things that I was taught. The same things that I wish everyone in this world knew. The most important lessons I have ever learned…to love without restrictions, to respect everyone and that every single person in this world is deserving of equal rights.