Today President Obama announced that he supports marriage equality for same-sex couples.
Wow. The President of the United States, taking a stand on such an important, and still divisive, cultural issue.
This is especially important for the millions of people who struggle with their sexuality because they live in a society that gives them mixed messages. We are social animals, and even if we'd like to believe it doesn't matter, for millions of people it does, understandably, matter what other people think.
I don't know why, and I don't especially care, but some of us are born with an attraction to people of the same sex. I had to accept that fact myself and learn to understand that there is nothing wrong with it. It took me until I was almost 28 (I am 45 now) to be able to accept it. I still meet gay people who are my age that can't accept that they're gay, even though they've been gay their entire lives.
When people can't accept who they are, and when they feel society will reject them for being who they are, bad things happen including entering into relationships that are not appropriate. Nothing is more destabilizing to the institution of heterosexual marriage than forcing people into relationships that aren't appropriate for them. And it's unfair for couples who are not heterosexual to feel like society will never condone their relationship and that it will deny them the responsibilities and legal protections of marriage.
It's OK to be who you are. That's the message that I take from those famous words penned by Thomas Jefferson (below) and it's what I take from President Obama today.
Thank you Mr. President!
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Jim Breitinger
Salt Lake City
6 comments:
Yes, Much Gratitude all around - for the President bringing the issues to the forefront as important and deserving of support through equality. Also, thank you Jim for your amazing response and sentiment!!
Well said! Thanks for that posting.
(I made an earlier post but I had made a typo that really distorted my meaning. I couldn't figure out how to edit it, so I deleted it)
I think that government at all levels should stay out of marriage. As most people use the word "marriage" it is a sacrament and as such it should be administered by churches, temples, etc. Think of another sacrament like baptism. What are the LEGAL requirements? Can boys be baptized? Whites? Blacks? The law is silent about baptism. So should be concerning marriage. Religions should be free to decide on their own what liturgical rules apply just as they do for baptism, communion, ordination etc. For Christians who believe that marriage can only be between a man and a woman that can be the rule in their church. My church should be able to marry men to men or women to women if we want.
Government has a role in enforcing contracts between consenting people. Civil unions should be allowed for any 2 (or maybe 3 or 4) people regardless of gender, race, age at least above the age that any contract can be enforced. This position is mainstream libertarian and has also be supported by such legal scholars as Alan Derschovich, whose name I may have mangled.
Post a Comment