Apparently gay marriage is still an issue.
Maybe I’m being obtuse, but I don’t see the problem with it. My main question is, does this affect you in any way? Does the gayness of one individual impede on the liberty of another?
Unless being gay means exclusively violating the rights of others, which it doesn’t, then I’m at a loss as to why anyone would have an issue with it.
I get it — in whatever place in the Bible, it says man lying with another man is a sin, or whatever.
I’m not trying to trivialize the Bible, don’t get me wrong. I totally acknowledge that the Bible plays a huge role in the way our society has developed and the way that our country was formed.
However, the United States doesn’t have an official religion for a reason. (We also don’t have an official language, for everyone out there who is totally bitter that there are people in this country who don’t know English.)
Just a friendly reminder: There is a separation of church and state.
Separation of church and state doesn’t mean that people are stabbing Christianity with their pocket knives.
It just means perhaps Christianity shouldn’t have any more pull on the law or our policies or our secular lives than Islam, Buddhism, atheism, Taoism, Confucianism or any other –ism does.
So that means that citing the Bible when we talk about gay marriage isn’t really all that fair.
What if I cited Hindu beliefs every single time the topic of beef or meat eating came up in America?
It would get really tiresome — kind of how tiresome this talk about gay marriage gets.
And, let’s be honest, there is actually some discrepancy in how we enforce the rules of Christianity.
Nowhere in the law do we prohibit people from gluttony.
As a matter of fact, it’s encouraged only because it promotes the ideals of capitalism: The more we eat, the more we sell.
What about divorce, breaking the Sabbath or lying? All are discouraged in the Bible, and yet no one cares — not in the same way we care about gays.
It’s just pretty hypocritical to say gays can’t get married because the Bible says it, and then let all this other stuff fly without a hitch.
Lying totally impedes the liberty of others more than a man marrying another man does.
I even understand the moral dilemma involving abortion: Sure, it’s a woman’s body and the rights to her body, but the questions of when life starts and when murder begins are in the air here.
I am pretty sure no one dies, even an egg or a half-formed fetus, when a gay person gets married, though. Let me know when it happens.
Bottom line is, gays being gay and then being gay about it when they get married have absolutely no affect on you, or me or anyone else.
The fact that you have a moral quandary with it does not mean that it should be illegal.
If every moral dilemma were illegal by the nature of it being a moral dilemma, then we wouldn’t be allowed to dance, have sex out of wedlock or eat a lot in one sitting.
E.M. Tran is in her first year of MFA graduate studies. She is from New Orleans, La. Follow her on Twitter @etran3.
