Awhile ago, I posted my essay on gay marriage. Well, that was for school, and now I’d like to talk about it again, without a format that I’m required to adhere to.

In all honesty, I find it absolutely ridiculous that there are people out there so vehemently against gay marriage. Even an “I don’t like it, I won’t recognize it” stance would be better than doing everything in your power to prevent it from happening.

If you don’t know my parents, (which you almost certainly don’t) their marriage isn’t affecting you in any way, shape, or form. It would affect you similarly if I called them both Dad, or both Mom. If your religion frowns upon same-sex marriage, that’s understandable. So don’t marry someone of the same sex. [I’m going to use this portion to introduce the names of a hypothetical homosexual couple, to be used for the rest of this post, to aid in conciseness: John and Paul) If John and Paul are gay and want to marry each other, their religion is obviously okay with it. Every religious text and doctrine is open to interpretation. Even two Southern Baptists, even if they’re family members, will see different things as being acceptable, although, granted, there will likely be extremely slight differences.

Continuing with the religion aspect, I can understand why you wouldn’t be okay with same-sex marriage because of your religion. Does this make it an acceptable argument for the continued illegality of same-sex marriage? Absolutely not. According to the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which state “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” there can be no law passed based on religious reasoning. This applies to individual states as well as Congress. While these “Defense of Marriage” laws may not be explicitly religion-preferring in nature, I think it is a pretty safe bet that a good majority of the “Aye” votes cast, were cast on religious reasoning alone. If not religious, then more of an “I think gays are icky!” position.

Sometimes, the argument is heard that “gay marriage oppresses my religious freedom!” This is just untrue. Your rights to practice your religion are not being infringed upon because someone else is being allowed to violate your religious beliefs.

I feel that pretty much every argument made against same-sex marriage can be boiled down to either religion, as I discussed above, or just not liking homosexuals. If any of you feel that this is incorrect, which it may be, feel free (even encouraged) to correct me. Do so civilly, please.

“The conservative movement, to which I subscribe, has as one of its basic tenets the belief that government should stay out of people’s private lives. Government governs best when it governs least – and stays out of the impossible task of legislating morality. But legislating someone’s morality is exactly what we do by perpetuating discrimination against gays.” ~ Senator Barry Goldwater, 1997