COMMENTARY | Despite the efforts of conservatives who fear that allowing gay couples the dignity of marriage will cause an apocalypse, the tide is turning relentlessly toward allowing gay marriage. Like it or not, it's here to stay. Washington is on the verge of becoming the seventh state to make same sex marriage legal, according to the Associated Press.
This happened a day after the demise of Proposition 8 in California. Proposition 8 was ruled unconstitutional by a federal panel of judges, in a decision the Washington Post calls "just but wobbly."
The legal process of making unfair discrimination going away has always been lengthy and difficult, but eventually it happens. It's called progress. This morning I was listening to the radio to commentary about Proposition 8. The parallel was drawn between gay marriage and interracial marriage, which at one time was illegal. I'm sure somebody thought the sky would fall and the Earth open to swallow us all if we allowed people of different races to marry, but ultimately reason won out.
What will happen if same sex couples are allowed to marry? They will. So what? Now can we focus on something important, like fixing the economy, creating some jobs, ending global warming?
Keeping same sex couples from getting married is not a pursuit that warrants the energy that people are willing to spend. Why is it so important to the people who are preparing to take Proposition 8 to the Supreme Court, where they are almost certainly expected to do, according to the Lookout?
Whatever happened to the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? This country was founded on the ideals of freedom, including religious freedom. Why is it some religious conservatives feel entitled to attempt to legally discriminate against others who are not hurting them personally in any way?
If this is a "moral issue," then let each of us have our own morals. I spent time in college living in a shared house, and two of my housemates were closeted gays. One was a gay man, the other a lesbian woman. I walked in on a discussion one day and discovered their secret.
They were both terrified of losing jobs they loved, so they stayed in hiding. I would not have wanted to live either of their lives. The idea that gays and lesbians decide to join an oppressed minority to annoy the religious right is ridiculous. I like to think we've made progress since then, but it seems that we've made less than we should.
Women had to fight for the vote too, which in hindsight was absurd. Someday the absurdity of Proposition 8 will be just as obvious.
435 comments