I write the following diatribe not for my personal gain but for all of our citizens.
Read this not for me…but for your fellow man!
I am perplexed.
One of the founding principles of the Unites States is that all men are created equally!
While from history we know that the understanding of this concept has matured over time - the right of persons other than property owners to vote; the right of women to vote; that slavery is immoral and illegal; that persons of different races and faiths may marry - it has done so while expanding, rather than contracting the idea of what freedom and equality means.
One of the other founding principles is that we should not subvert the rights of a minority based solely upon the opinions of the majority!
THIS very fundamental concept was the basis of our idea of separation of church and state. America was formed in large part because the majority wanted to deny the right of certain of its members from practicing the faith, which they chose.
I am not a gay activist; I am a human rights activist.
Yet I stand dismayed and discouraged that once again we as a people have refused to believe in equality for all and for the protection of the minority.
Yes, Maine has done what California and other states have done. It has taken away a right, the right of two consenting adults to express their love and marry, based on the views of a voting majority.
And what is the generally perceived basis of this majority? That they "are preserving the sanctity of marriage." This is where I become confused and perplexed. How does the expression of marriage between two consenting adults ever lessen the sanctity of marriage?
The absolute hypocrisy of many who raise this argument is startling. How many married people cheat on their spouses? In the last year alone we have witnessed as countless, ultra-conservative, "family-values" politicians have been caught to be flagrantly cheating on their wives. It is the ultimate hypocrisy that those most outspoken as to the "sanctity of marriage" and their opposition to gay-marriage, have admitted that they cheated on their spouses!
The rate of divorce is currently in excess of fifty percent. Where is the sanctity of marriage being observed there? There is currently an initiative in California to ban divorce. Certainly all those who believe in the "sanctity of marriage" will be wholeheartedly supporting this initiative.) (Not!) Perhaps we should also reinstate the laws against adultery. Surely those two initiatives would do more to preserve the "sanctity of marriage" than voting to deny two loving people the right to marry.
Even if you disagree with me as to anything I have said before, I will add one note of caution.
We as a people should tread very lightly whenever the two fundamental principles expressed above, equality and the protection of the minority, are limited. How would you feel if we became a nation of radical Islamics and declared that we must follow the literal interpretation of the Koran? (Which is just as much fiction as our bible written by man for man to control man.) Should women be stoned for showing their faces in public? That is what the Koran says. Well guess what the bible says, "And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination” Leviticus 20:13
Which we know man has interpreted this to say gays will burn in hell. But the bible also says it is an abomination to eat shellfish. How many of you will burn in hell for eating shell fish? I did get a rash from shellfish once.
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