Ever since the issue of gay marriage went mainstream and states starting making it legal, there is one argument the opponents raise that I want explained to me and no one really can. How does allowing a man to marry another man or woman to a woman demean my marriage? Why is my marriage now no longer what it was? Nothing feels different. There were no miraculous changes to the marriage license tucked away in the safe with all the other documents. I still love her and I am pretty sure she still loves me.
So what changes? Well, a partner in marriage would give gay couples the rights and privileges any man and woman have in theirs. If one spouse has a family plan on health insurance, his or her whole family is put on the policy. The same would happen with gay couples. At the end of life the spouse is accorded the right to pull the plug on their partner if their is no hope of recovery. Gay couples could make that choice as well. If one person in a marriage passes away the surviving member is eligible for any death benefits or life insurances. The same for a gay couple. How does this demean my marriage? these are good things.
More marriage licenses issued by states means more revenue for the states. More marriages mean more receptions and this creates jobs for those in the wedding business. This can even lead to more people joining the work force. Another reason to pass this legislation by Congress.
I cannot understand why if two people fall in love then get married, no matter their sexual orientation, why one makes my marriage more significant that that of the other. After all what makes a marriage legal and recognized? A piece of paper with several signatures filed at your local courthouse. Just another piece of ground up wood pulp that could just as easily wound up in a box of tissue papers. Sign a new set of papers and the same marriage can be dissolved or even made to have never taken place.
Allowing civil unions or domestic partnerships is not the answer as some conservatives who want to make their marriage more important that that of a gay couple. We are a land of laws and rights. Since our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, it has evolved with the times. When it was written many of the signers were slave holders and the Constitution counted any slave as only two-thirds of a person. Women were not allowed to vote. At one point beer was banned in accordence to an amendnent added just less than 100 years ago. Many other passages actually took away the rights of the people and gave it to state legislatures. All those parts were stricken from, repealed or changed in one way or another. Now another needs added, the right for those of the same sex to marry.
Yet still, I go back to the original question. How does same sex marriage make the marriage to my wife Sherry, less important than one by Jim and Bill or Sally and Ann? It simply does not. In any way. Some may disagree with and believe homosexuality is a choice but as any intelligent person knows, people are born gay, not turned. And as far as using the old standby, the Bible says so. one must take into account that man and not God wrote the Bible. And until God or the Great Spaghetti Monster appears to the world then says something is wrong, I will stick to my own ideals, sense of fairness and equality and be in favor of same sex marriage. Even then whomever did show up will have to explain and prove it to me. And that will be a hard nut to crack. Because there is no reason to deny same sex couple the right to marry and having the same benefits as my wife and I have.