By Sarah Bishop
guest blogger
On July 24, 2011, New York’s bill was passed to legalize gay marriage. It is the most recent state to do so, along with Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and New Hampshire. Sadly, a total of eight out of 50 states are just not enough. That is only 16 percent of this free country we live in that allows people to marry who they wish, and we dare to say that we’re so diverse? 16 percent is pathetic. 16 percent is a slap in the face. Gay marriage needs to be legal.
People who are Christians and against legalizing gay marriage will openly reference the Bible, specifically Leviticus 18:22 “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.” However, American government is not based on a theocracy. Last time I checked, we are allowed to be whatever religion we want in this country.
Even if you are a devout Christian and truly believe that God finds homosexuality as a sin, there are things in the Old Testament that mention women being inferior to men in marriage. “She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life,” and “give not thy strength unto women,” are both passages from Proverbs 31:10-31 suggesting that women should only act as a helpmate in marriage, not an equal. Do “devout Christians” disagree with women’s rights now, too? Because if they think everything in the Old Testament still applies to today, they need a serious reality check.
Love is love, no matter if it’s with a man or a woman, and just because something isn’t standard doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Should we deny someone the legal right to marry whomever they wish because it isn’t “the norm” or isn’t what we’re used to in our society? Absolutely not. We are taught and encouraged to be different. To be ourselves, from kindergarten through high school, we are told “it’s okay to be different,” but I guess to some people, that only goes so far.
Why are people in our society so interested in what everyone else is doing that suddenly, the gender of someone that you don’t know is the same as another person that you don’t know, they fall in love and want to get married, that makes it your business? You wouldn’t protest any other marriage, because the fact of the matter is, it just simply is not your business! Who are you to tell the world who they should be allowed to love? Because that is what this is about. This is about the right to love. If two gay people want to get married to show that they are devoted and committed to each other, but they live right here in Michigan, they can’t. The state won’t recognize it as real, or valid, and that is denying them the right to prove their love to the state, to others, and even to themselves.
And that being said, I would go so far as to say that gay marriage being illegal is unconstitutional. The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights guarantee equality for everyone, but now the law is favoring straight people over gay people. You really can’t deny that fact. The law favors straight people. If it didn’t, if we were truly equal, gay people would be able to marry just as easily as straight people would. I believe there will be a day when they will. I believe in that day, but one person is just not enough. So let’s all move to legalize love, let’s all change that 16 percent to 100 percent, because really, does it make a difference whether it’s Adam and Eve or Adam and Steve?
