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Gay couples should be allowed to have a legal marriage, with all the rights and privileges afforded to heterosexual couples.

While no argument can be made that according to Christian tradition, homosexuality is not considered a sin (just as pre-marital, extramarital, and even masturbatory sex is), the United States is a country in which people are free to choose any religion they wish, even if it is no religion at all. Therefore, it is, in fact, against our free and democratic precepts to enforce a religious value on anyone who does not wish it.

Because certain moral norms have a foundation in traditional values, often of a religious nature, we, as a country, have changing laws to reflect more current values and individual rights. For example, the subjugation of women was based in Christian traditions as well, but our social values have outgrown the religious traditional values.

It is against our sense of equality to have a legal institution that affords rights and privileges to one class of people at the exclusion of another class. One can look at recent history and see that even as late as the 1950's some states had laws that prevented what were referred to as "mixed marriages." These laws made it unlawful for black and white people to intermarry. At the time of the inception of those laws, advocates pointed to the Bible to justify their position. At this point in time, if a man and a woman of any two races were denied the ability to marry because of their race, they, and their community, would be outraged. This is an example of how norms once held as normal and rightous have evolved.

It is a very similar phenomenon as when people who are opposed to gay marriage express their moral outrage at the possibility. They look and sound almost exactly the way the bigots of the pre-civil rights movement sounded when confronted with inter-racial ideas like integration in schools, and "mixed marriages."

Typically, people who refuse to consider the possibility of gay marriage imply that somehow if gay people are allowed to marry, it will somehow destroy the marriages of other, non-gay people. This is an absurd claim. However, that said, people whose religious beliefs are opposed to gay marriage can take comfort in the understanding that just because the government sanctions gay marriage, that does not mean that churches have to. For those sects who maintain the unacceptable nature of these unions, they could never be forced to sanction or perform gay marriages. Traditional couples who wish to have their heterosexual marriage sanctioned in a way they consider "superior" to gay marriages, they can simply have a government-sanctioned marriage along with a church marriage. In their minds, the blessing of their church should provide the value-added blessing they seem so desperately to need.

It is quite ironic that in the current environment where it is not legal for gays to marry, they find tolerance and accommodation in some churches who routinely perform commitment ceremonies intended to sanction the union of gay people as if they were married. It is clear that some religious sects do not find the desire to enter into a life-long commitment of exclusivity as distasteful as other sects do. This is an indication of where sentiments are going. Unfortunately this issue is under the cloud of those who need a divisive fear-based wedge issue in order to further their political aspirations. As long as this issue is given that power, there will be those among us who are not treated equally.

Learn more about this author, Pat Fox Ph.D..
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