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The United States Declaration of Independence, penned largely by American founding father Thomas Jefferson, states that Americans have the "inalienable right" to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The exclusion of homosexuals from the institution of marriage is an outdated stance, a holdover from the Puritan beginnings of American law. The United States is theoretically a democracy, not a theocracy. The religious beliefs of the majority does not constitute a justifiable legal reason to deny the inclusion of the minority into the rights of the populace.

The marriage of homosexual people will not harm family values; family values are undergoing the most dramatic change yet in the history of America. This change does not spell out the demise of the Republic, contrary to the outcry raised by right-wing Christian conservatives. Traditional family values are undergoing a massive upheaval because the society of mankind has yet to catch up to the changes wrought by a leaping technological culture. It is up to those who want to "protect" traditional family values to do so within their own families - that is their right as Americans.

Those who see the American family as a man married to a woman with children trailing behind them have the right to pursue their idea of happiness. They must, however, acknowledge that others have the legal right to pursue their idea of happiness, whether it's being a man who wants to a marry another man, a single-parent household or a unmarried heterosexual couple. We all have the "inalienable right" to pursue our idea of happiness.

Gay marriage does not impede anyone else's pursuit of happiness, but a ban on gay marriage impedes the happiness of uncounted American couples. We have the obligation, as members of a democracy, to protect the rights of our minorities. In this way, we protect the spirit of democracy.

Learn more about this author, Emily Ackerland.
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