Gay marriage in America is inevitable just like women's suffrage and civil rights were inevitable it's just a matter of time. After years of conservatives using the issue of gay marriage as a wedge issue during elections the American people (at least the sane ones) are finally giving it some thought and realizing that they don't really care if two men or two women want to get married. Of course this drives the wingnuts crazy and they start sputtering Bible verses and quoting TV preachers.
Well they should really leave the Bible out of it because the Bible never mentions gay marriage. Not once.
The wingnutters usually point to Leviticus 20:13 as their go-to verse for dealing with any homosexuality issues:
If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
Leviticus is a fun book and is full of fun rules like chapter 20, verse 9:
If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, and his blood will be on his own head.
Or another favorite of mine--chapter 20, verse 18:
If a man lies with a woman during her monthly period and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has also uncovered it. Both of them must be cut off from their people.
But wait! Leviticus isn't the only book of the Bible with rules to follow. Deuteronomy also has some good stuff like chapter 23, verse 1:
No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.
Wow, so nobody who has had testicular cancer can go to church? The absolute best one, though, is Deuteronomy 22:28-29:
If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
Holy crap! If a women gets raped she has to marry her attacker and they can never be divorced! I hope that the talking heads who show up on Fox News to rail against gay marriage remember that if their daughters ever get raped.
The big point is that there is nothing in the Bible that says two men getting married is wrong. The problem is that people think guys having sex is icky and they don't want to think about it. That's all it is...they aren't afraid for the institution of marriage they just think gay sex is icky. I've often asked opponents of gay marriage how two men or two women getting married would hurt their own marriage and I have never gotten an answer. I usually just get a Bible verse or two.
It's time for the Democrats to stop hiding on this issue because they think it hurts them in elections. Civil unions are a nice idea but they aren't marriage just like the "separate but equal" system of school segregation wasn't really equality. It's time to stand up and be on the right side of this cause.
This issue needs to be important to all of us, though, and not just gay people. I spent a number of years content as a bachelor and had no plans to settle down and get married but then I met an amazing woman and that all changed. Our marriage and the coming together of our two families is something I can't imagine living without and it's an outrage that people who love each other as much as my wife and I love each other can't experience that.