For most of my life my morals, my political stand points, and prejudices were based off of what my parents believed. I was raised in a Christian home, though not the strictest of ones, but a religious environment none the less. Even now, as an adult, a college student living at home for the sake of finances, the impact of my parents’ biased views try to weasel their way into my own definitive perspective. It would then be easy to conclude my family’s view on same-sex marriage would be the same as mine; this may be true if I had not recently moved.

Born and raised in Northern California a move to Montgomery, Alabama was quite the change of setting. In August of 2011 I packed up my life and joined my family to live in the south. It is even more peculiar with the stigma’s the south holds about race and homosexuals that I would find the eye-opening moments that would change my opinion vastly on same-sex marriages. Moving to Montgomery I quickly got to work and through my workplace I became friends with quite a few people, several of them gay and lesbian. I’ve never held issues with homosexuals but held a belief that Marriage was between one man and one woman, and thought civil unions were enough for homosexuals (my ignorance of the differences between marriage and civil unions also disadvantaged my opinion). Interacting with my friends hetero and homosexual a like I began to be confused why I had ever had the firm belief at all; because the bible told me so? I have been blindly agreeing to deny the rights of people without even knowing why.

John Covino’s long term example of a same-sex couple of Tommy and Jim relate to a similar couple that I know of that have influenced my opinion on same-sex marriage. Homosexuality being addressed as “unnatural” is just an easy way to explain why one might have hate towards it; as Covino put it “…when people call homosexuality ‘unnatural’ they really just mean that it’s disgusting” (86). Hate is the only real reason why one would object to giving same-sex couples the right to marry. The notion that unnatural activities of same-sex sex was affecting society as a whole is a rather silly one; just as it was that interracial couples were a blight on the world.

Further attempts to attack homosexuality via AIDS evidence refutes itself as AIDS is a disease that infects all genders and all couplings. It has been claimed that men engaging in homosexual activities are at higher risk thus prohibiting them is for the best, right? “If it is wrong for men to have sex with men cause their doing so puts them at a higher AIDS risk than heterosexual sex, then it is also wrong for women to have sex with men because their doing so puts them at a higher AIDS risk than homosexual sex (lesbians as a group have the lowest incidence of AIDS)” this concludes that women should be then encouraged to engage in homosexual activity as it is in their best interest to avoid AIDS (Covin 88). Prohibiting relationships based on a promiscuity is a silly notion as both homosexuals and heterosexuals are at risk.

The sanctity of marriage is already deteriorating as divorce rates increase, while same-sex couples stand on the sidelines in relationships that have lasted years to decades longer than some heterosexual couplings (especially celebrities). Think back to why you don’t want to give someone the right to a legal marriage; to why you refuse equal rights.