If You're Opposed to Same Sex Marriage, Don't Get One

Many conservatives are vehemently opposed to gay marriage. This fact has always puzzled me. I have one question for them: why do you care?

I mean really, what's going to happen to the narrow minded conservative world-view if gay people can marry each other? Anarchy in the streets? A second Flood? See the rainbow, people. Where there's love, there's love - I can't imagine God intended it any other way.

Some religions hold homosexuality to be sinful. Good for them. Many also hold drinking and premarital sex to be sinful as well, but there aren't many laws against those. This country has freedom of religion, which means that, although one person may practice their religion to their hearts' content, they may not force their religious beliefs on anyone else, which means that preventing people of a different religion from getting married because it would objectionable under one's own is unconstitutional, it's wrong.

I live in Virginia, which recently added and amendment to the state's constitution banning same sex marriage. There's a worthy addition. Now we have, in the state constitution, the equality of all people before the law, the monition that all power is derived from the people, and the firm prohibition of same sex marriage? How is that sufficiently fundamental to be in our state's constitution alongside the state's Bill of Rights?

Conservatives may say that marriage is sacred, that allowing gays to enter it would in someway taint it, or devalue it. Marriage may be sacred before a given church, but it is not sacred before the law. Before the law, it is an agreement between to people to live in support of one another for the rest of their lives. It is a beautiful thing, but the religious views of one group of people should not be allowed to deny it entirely to another group of people.

Living next door to me are two retired gay men who having been living together for over thirty years. These men are kind. They walk their dog together, keep their lawn meticulously, and always wave to their neighbors. They would have married decades ago in a more equitable society. Now, they have to deal with all kinds of unnecessary issues - they can't be taxed as a couple, and instead are taxed as roommates. They have to have separate health insurance, separate car insurance. If one is in critical condition in a hospital, the other may not be allowed to visit him because most hospitals have a policy that only immediate family members can visit patients in critical condition, all because the state recognizes no official relationship between to people who have been living together in love and harmony for over three decades.

Wake up and smell the love, people.