An End to Discrimination

I’ve wanted to write this for a long, long time. I only wish more people would listen to and understand what I am saying:

The time to end intolerance toward homosexuals, particularly in their desires to get married—the time to cease this injustice is NOW.

Now I understand how some people can be adverse to the idea of homosexual marriage, running away from something they would rather ignore than understand. Like most, I have my own prejudices; as humans, we all do. But what makes us intelligent is our ability to learn from our mistakes and to strive to come together as a harmonious society that values each of its members. I can’t see anyone who follows these guidelines to civilization able to hold a real objection to homosexuals and homosexual marriage.

As for everyone else, can’t they see the painful discrimination that their outright condemnation or their silent inactivity inflicts on others? The state of affairs reminds me of the discrimination against black Americans in the 1960s. At the time, interracial couples were a mortal sin, just as homosexual couples seem to be now. I remember reading about famous racists in high school, remember the disgust I shared with my classmates at the barbaric side of human nature. I only wish more people would recognize that the condemnation of interracial couples—which was built on a backbone of hate—was soon ruled socially unacceptable. I only wish more people would recognize that the fight against homosexual marriage—built on the same backbone of hate—must now also fall out of social favor.

For starters, I don’t even understand the legitimacy of the opposition’s argument. Is there really a law that states that marriage is only intended between heterosexual couples? So far, all I have seen is legislation aimed at making this the case in a so-called righteous battle to protect the sanctity of marriage. And all I’ve heard is that the Bible traditionally justifies and defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Well, I was also under the impression that we practiced a separation of church and state in this country. The Bible has no place in the American legal scene, and certainly has no place inflicting pain and sorrow on the lives of good human beings.

I just can’t see any benevolent god hating homosexuality so much that he can’t allow love—greatest of the human emotions—to grow and flourish between gay couples. Gays and lesbians are not monsters, they’re human beings—human beings that deserve to be respected. Preventing gay marriage because it would degrade a particular tradition or because it would be “hazardous” to a child are not proper displays of respect. After all, we let children into this world under far more dangerous conditions than two homosexuals could ever pose. Thanks to the anti-abortion folks, children have children. And no one at all (including the same conservative anti-abortionists) seems to support using contraception. Am I really living in a world where poor, underage teens who are not encouraged to use protection breed freely without the option of abortion, but in which homosexuals are not allowed to marry because they are seen as a threat to a newborn child?

I think as a society we should’ve had about enough of this discrimination by now. The time to change America’s stance on gay marriage is NOW!