How Does a Gay Marriage Affect a Straight Marrige?

It's been all over the news lately: gay marriage. This side's for it, that side's against it, but no one seems to be discussing why. Maybe no one's actually taken the time to think about it.

Heterosexual marriages are certainly not the stuff of fairy tales, US divorce rates hover around 50%; for remarriages, it's around 60%. So when I hear someone spouting off about "the sanctity of marriage" I have to laugh. "Sanctimonious" is more like it. Back in the day, when you got married, you stayed married through thick or thin, for better or worse. Today it's akin to simply living together. Divorce is as easy as either calling a lawyer to start the paperwork or stating it yourself "pro se" with a visit to your local courthouse. Judges grant divorces, they do not tell couples to "work on it, it'll get better". Judges know better than that.

I hear people talk about how a marriage is a contract between only a man and a woman and must stay that way. Closed-minded? A little bit, yes, but these people have a hidden fear that their "union" will be somehow diminished if homosexuals are allowed the same "privileges" as married hetero couples - yet even they themselves can't tell you why. I can tell you why: these people feel that marriage should be an exclusive "club" to which only heterosexuals can belong. And if you tell them that, they'll start quoting Bible verses and throwing around words like "sanctity" and "holy union". There's just no reaching some people.

A homosexual couple marrying diminishes my marriage in the same way that homeowner in Alaska putting up a fence diminishes my property value. It doesn't. Johnny Timeclock would not be affected by a gay marriage anywhere but in his head. He might not like the idea, he might even be repulsed by it, but it would not make his heterosexual marriage any less valid. His buddies at work would not be all, "Ha ha! Johnny's married! He must be a homo!" That's just ridiculous.

Almost as ridiculous as the arguments against gay marriage - from which I have yet to hear a legitimate reason why gay couples should not be allowed to marry. If you don't like the idea, why not? Why does it bother you? Honestly, homosexuality is not my bag - the thought of two men together makes me wince, but what two consenting adults choose to do, they can do without me judging them for it. I might not want to hunker down with a hairy gent, but if some other guy does want to - have at it. As long as I'm not subjected to it, I really don't care. That's as open-minded as I get.

Your marriage and mine are not going to change if we let gay couples wed. There were many exclusive clubs out there that wouldn't accept women or blacks until people complained loud enough (mostly women and blacks, surprisingly enough...). In fact, there still are. If you're a member of one (or wish you were), you probably understand and enjoy the thought of being "elite". I don't feel that marriage should be an elitist club. I think if marriage is considered a basic human right, it should extend to all, not just those that fit the Bible's (or conservative's) definition of human.

We're all in this together, folks - when are we going to start acting like it?