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Of course homosexuals should have the same rights as heterosexuals! They're people too!

Except, apparently, when it comes to marriage. "Civil Unions" confer almost all of the same benefits, you may argue, let Them get one of Those! I suppose that makes sense.... since "separate but equal" has worked so well in our nation's past to satisfy those uppity minority groups who presume to want the same rights as the rest of us.

Almost the entire argument against it being legal for homosexuals to marry is religious, specifically Christian, and religion has no place in lawmaking- in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, the United States is not yet a theocracy. The rest of the argument against it seems to be a form of "ew that's gross" reaction from homophobes.... which is easily enough answered with "If you don't like gay marriage, then don't get one."

The definition of and perceptions concerning marriage has changed immensely over the course of recorded history- divorce is quite legal, for instance. Divorce has done more harm to "the American Family" than allowing gay marriage ever could, and yet you don't see even the right wing nut jobs clamoring for a return to the time when a King of England went and created his own church just so he could sever that whole "till death do us part" thing. And of course there's the fact that there are many, many more Bible verses addressing divorce than homosexuality.

Women are no longer chattel, property owned by the father until it is passed into the safekeeping of the husband- surely when those ideas started to change there was that same panicked, suppressive reaction we're witnessing now. Surely people quoted the apostle Paul concerning the role of women, how they should be submissive, quiet, not placed in a role of leadership.... wait, what did you say? The same party that condemns gay marriage on biblical grounds has a female vice presidential candidate? Well, whaddaya know? *wink*

The occasional arguments that gay marriage is wrong because a gay couple cannot naturally produce children (ok, people who are infertile or too old are no longer allowed to get married), because "the parts don't fit" so a gay couple cannot have "traditional" sex (so what, you want a government official to witness and document a certain type of successful copulation before a union can be considered valid? wow, that would be an interesting job), or best of all, because "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" (ok, first off, you REALLY and literally believe the Genesis story? and secondly, if it was literal, Adam and Eve didn't have much of a choice. maybe Eve was a lesbian, but Adam was kind of the only other human on the planet. ever think of that?), range from insulting to ludicrous, and can't be part of any reasoned argument.

I simply believe that when two consenting adults want to spend their lives together, and if want to participate in a formal, binding ceremony to that effect, we don't have the right to discriminate against them on the simple basis of gender- one or the other, or both of them being male or female. Oh, that's right, discrimination based on gender is already illegal... oops.

Learn more about this author, Kellie Hall.
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