"Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. – Yoda,
whoever would have guessed that a fictional character would have made such a profound statement relative to today's society? And who would have thought that fear of same-sex marriage would have led to” so many crossroads. Gay marriage isn’t something that should be taken lightly, and yet needs to be addressed versus being divided into unnecessary subdivisions. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October of 2005 did something that astounds me; he passed a “bill intended to protect gay men and lesbians against discriminatory business practices” on the same day he vetoed the same-sex marriage proposal. I feel that if you are willing to stick your neck out and allow gay men and women to be protected why would you prevent same-sex marriage? If I were to write the governor a letter I would ask why he did that, why would he disallow discrimination but not approve gay marriage?
The systemic injustices of this are that gay couples cannot do the same things as straight people as well as being discriminated against on a daily basis. Gay people have to defend themselves everyday from the moment they wake up to the moment when they fall asleep, and this just isn’t fair. How does one person’s happiness bring fear into the life of someone it doesn’t involve, what I mean is, who does it hurt if gay people can get married and be happy? Having people in my life that are gay definitely makes it a lot easy for me to be an ally; I have seen how some of my friends have been treated for their sexual orientation, I have seen them being harassed mainly verbally but sometimes physically and it isn’t right for these kinds of social injustices to be occurring. My mother being gay has had a huge impact on my view about gay rights, I believe that nobody has any right what so ever to tell her that she cannot get married and be happy. I feel the same about everyone in this situation; no bystander has a right to tell someone they don’t have the right to be happy.
This issue is a big one and all the major officials avoid it most of the time and worry about bigger issues like the war in Iraq, but a battle in our own society should be as much of a priority as a war going on somewhere else. “Assembly Bill 1400, the Civil Rights Act of 2005, authored by Central Coast lawmaker John Laird, will expand anti-discrimination codes by including sexual orientation in the law. It builds upon the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, or medical condition. Laird’s bill forbids all businesses that provide services, goods or accommodations to the public—including shopping malls, hotels, bars and restaurants, schools and medical offices, among others—from discriminating based on sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status.” This was found online in the Monterey County Weekly and although it is a good start on discrimination, it still doesn’t allow two gay people to get married. The article goes on to say how Schwarzenegger “did sign three others that will strengthen protection for gays and lesbians in addition to Laird’s. One piece of legislation prohibits insurers and health plans from discriminating on the basis of gender identity; another allows domestic partners of public employees who retired prior to Jan 1, 2005, to receive death benefits; and the fourth will strengthen domestic partners’ property rights.”
There are some people who are fine with allowing homosexuals to get married as was the case in with “Robert Hanson, a judge in Iowa,” who “made headlines and overturned the same-sex marriage ban.” People like these are making the necessary steps to demolish the oppression being put on homosexuals. As well as churches going as far as not allowing any marriage ceremonies; “The small, liberal church in south Minneapolis was the first of several Twin Cities congregations last year to stop performing civil marriage ceremonies as long as gay marriage is illegal.” And even entire countries like; “On July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide with the approval of the Civil Marriage Act.” As far as today’s candidates go, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain believe that there should not be a Constitutional amendment or federal law defining marriage as only between a man and a woman but that doesn’t mean that they necessarily supports gay marriage. Alan Keyes is Pro Constitutional amendment or federal law defining marriage as only between a man and a woman.
My personal action plan will be to go to all gay rallies and pride parades with a sign saying how I am an ally to those who are being oppressed in today’s society. I commit to being an active member in GSA’s or starting one, and speaking out against oppression. I commit to not say phrases such as “that’s so gay” or calling people “gay/fags” etc. and I also commit to correcting others when they say phrases of this sort. I also commit to continuing to do major projects such as this one and the one I presented to the entire CST class last semester to put out the word that homosexuals deserve the same rights and respect as any other person in this world. I also want to write the governor and ask him how he can approve one thing but deny another of the same conduct. Speaking of writing letters if I had the opportunity I would write the presidential candidates and ask them their direct position on the topic of gay rights and marriage combined, no cameras, not other public view, I want the truth, I would tell them that the reason I am not voting is based on their views and ignorance to this issue. Can you imagine the amount of votes one candidate would get if they were to tell people that they are Pro same sex marriage? So many people gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, a lot of people would vote for that candidate, mostly, the only people who wouldn’t be happy with it would be the people with older standards, who were raised to believe everything the bible says and were forced to believe that being gay is a sin, This is another topic all in itself.
Religion is being used as an excuse in today’s society as a valid reason to be against gay marriage and against gay rights but why is being gay a sin, if 1) God created all children, 2) God loves all his children, 3) God doesn’t want us to judge one another and even if God saw being gay as a sin he forgives all sins anyways so what is the problem here? Many people read too much into the bible, I am Christian, I believe in God and the bible but I still believe that God loves the gay children he created.
I suggest that high end officials need to get their acts together and take this issue seriously, like slavery, homophobia is an oppression that is like a cancer that if it isn’t treated will just spread. I think that more people need to join the ally aspect of homosexuality; you don’t need to be gay to support gay rights!
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