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Odds are, if you were on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram today, you saw this picture somewhere on your Newsfeed.
The image, created by the Human Rights Campaign, basically symbolizes the fight for marriage equality which is kind of a big deal as of late. With the Supreme Court hearing cases on both California’s “Proposition 8″ law and DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), it might very well be the biggest story of the upcoming weeks. Yes, take that sequester; you are so last week.
But instead of talking about the court cases, let’s admire for a second how quickly America has turned in their stances on gay marriage. Let’s just use the past calendar year as an example of how many noteworthy political achievements have occurred in the same sex marriage movement.
- The first serving Vice-President and President to support marriage equality.
- The first sitting Republican member of the Senate to support marriage equality.
- Bill Clinton, the signer of DOMA and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; comes out in support of marriage equality as does his wife Hillary.
- “Moderate” Democrats such as Mark Warner, Jon Tester and Claire McCaskill endorse it.
- Three states, Maine, Maryland and Washington become the first states to approve of marriage equality through popular vote.
- A megachurch in North Carolina announces that they will suspend all marriage ceremonies until all people can be married, regardless of orientation.
It is now getting to the point that if you don’t support marriage equality, you kind of seem to be the odd man out in your group of friends. What stance can you possibly have against marriage equality? If you use your religious beliefs, fine you are against it, but since when did our nation (one that is supposed to be a)-free and b)-believe in a separation between church & state) live off one religion? Isn’t that why our nation lives off a Constitution not Commandments?
What about the Constitution in which everyone has the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”? Should we just forget that when it comes to the LGBT community? Do they not count as citizens? Isn’t someone’s marriage something that should be a happy occasion? Why is one segment of society banned from having that momentous occasion?
Marriage Equality is something that is not a new issue even if you decided to take your head out of the sand and finally tune in. Homosexuality is as old as the Scriptures, but the idea of equality for the LGBT community is now mischaracterized as a “fad”. How can we describe ourselves as a free nation when our laws purposely hold people back from committing to the people they love?
Even if the court votes to overturn Prop. 8 and DOMA, same-sex marriage may not be legalized right away and will likely take a few years to accomplish. There will be loud holdouts and several dissenters.
But the march has made it to the highest court in the land. It has made it to the mainstream of political safety. If you are against it, you are against the future. We are not progressing as a nation, we are simply reverting to what we should have done a long time ago.