There has been a lot of coverage lately about Constance McMillen, the high school student who wanted to take her girlfriend to her high school prom, only to have her request denied and the prom cancelled. Thankfully, McMillen did not cower back into the closet, but choose to fight a battle that gays and lesbians across the country and across the world have been engaged in for decades.
In a country where women weren’t allowed to vote until 1920 and blacks weren’t granted their civil rights until 1964, it comes as no surprise that homosexuals are still not treated like the human beings that they are. Yes, there have been advancements, like the landmark 2003 Lawrence v. Texas court case that rid the country of laws regarding sodomy. Yet repealing laws that pertain specifically to sexual acts is not enough.
As an openly gay person, it’s a slap in the face whenever I hear someone speak about homosexuality as if it were a choice. Who in their right mind would choose to be ridiculed by classmates, be universally hated and be unable to marry the person they love? The first step to gaining rights is to educate those around us. We must make them realize that the life we live is not a choice made through a masochistic desire for hatred and intolerance but something that is felt within and cannot be changed. Simply saying that it is a choice gives an easy out to those people who want to deny us our rights.
The Matthew Shepard Act was signed into law by Barack Obama in 2009 and helped give authorities the ability to investigate deeper into hate crimes among other things. While this law was passed with good intentions, it’s not enough to stop the amount of hate that is geared toward homosexuals in general. Separating us into groups only goes to further to accentuate our differences, rather than focus on the fact that regardless of race or sexual orientation, we are all the same and should be treated as such.
One of the biggest oppositions that gay people face are from those who feel our rights are not due to us because the Bible says it is an “abomination.” While I can respect their right to believe in whatever religion they choose, I wish their decision about the well being and rights of their fellow humans was found within their heart and not within the pages of a book.
Gay people in this country don’t have it nearly as bad as those in other countries. In Sudan, simply being gay can land you life in prison or with the death penalty. In Guyana, male homosexuality is illegal while female homosexuality is legal. I’m thankful I don’t think live in any of these places. But in the United States, it’s a sad state of affairs when two people, regardless of sex, are unable to prove their love to each other through marriage in a country that prides itself on having liberty and justice for all
It’s time for people of all faiths and backgrounds to reevaluate their stand on the rights of others. We are either a country united together or divided by petty differences. It’s time for more people to have the same courage and conviction of McMillen to stand up for injustice wherever it may appear.
Scrivener5 • Apr 2, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans who are military fighting men and women is so anachronistic as to be no more than a vestigial limb on the body of the American military.
Unlike President Obama, who never served a day in the military, President Harry S Truman WAS an American fighting man who displayed qualities of leadership, bravery, and courage under fire. President Truman desegrated the military in 1948…20 years before the rest of (racist) American society caught up–and President Truman was NO social liberal; he just realized that American fighting manpower was stronger WITH Blacks integrated than segregated.
It is difficult for President Obama to stand up to the neanderthals under his command because the president lacks military experience…and credibility. That is why he often looks to be bumbling, stumbling, unsure, and clueless.
That is why the idiots under his command treat him like a naive sissy who can be routinely pimp-slapped.
After President Obama finishes his first (and only) term, it would seem as though the next president will have the military cred to completely dismantle the archaic practice of discrimination against gay military members. When fighting two simulaneous wars, every able and ready fighting man and fighting woman is gratefully welcomed by all liberty-loving Americans who realize that freedom is not free…and that freedom costs blood.
Chuck Anziulewicz • Apr 2, 2010 at 8:53 am
That Gay couples seek to marry is not an attack on marriage. If anything it is an ENDORSEMENT of marriage, an acknowledgment that it far better to encourage couples toward monogamy and commitment, rather than relegating them to lives of loneliness and promiscuity.
Ask any Straight couple why they choose to marry. Their answer will not be, “We want to get married so that we can have sex and make babies!” That would be absurd, since couples do not need to marry to make babies, nor is the desire or even the ability to make babies a prerequisite for obtaining a marriage license.
No, the reason couples choose to marry is to make a solemn declaration before friends and family members that they wish to make a commitment to one another’s happiness, health, and well-being, to the exclusion of all others. Those friends and family members will subsequently act as a force of encouragement for that couple to hold fast to their vows.
THAT’S what makes marriage a good thing. Gay couples recognize that and support that. And I suspect that those who want to prohibit Gay couples from marrying do so only because they don’t want to allow Gay couples the opportunity to PROVE that they are up to the task.
For those who suggest that the issue of marriage is best left up to the states, it’s important to remember that the federal government has a vested interest in married couples for the purposes of income taxes and Social Security benefits. From the fed’s point of view, it wouldn’t do for a couple to be considered married in one state, then magically “UN-married” once they decide to move somewhere else.
The fact remains that the term “marriage” does not occur in the Constitution of the United States. There is technically no “right” for any couple, Gay or Straight, to get married, at least from the federal government’s standpoint. And that is why, ultimately, the Supreme Court will have to address the issue of what constitutes a marriage, much as I’m sure they would prefer NOT to.