WOW. Who knew, who thought, but WOW. The only thing to add to what President Barak Obama said is
– IT’S ABOUT TIME!!!
Whilst I understand that people are arguing that it is an election year, 6 months out, being used to gain votes, at the end of the day, does it really matter? Irrespective of President Obama’s intensions, he cannot take back this statement, and now that he has publicly expressed his approval of gay marriage, action will need to be taken. Currently, as it stands, this is not an election promise, he has not in so many words said that he will make policy changes to reflect his personal feelings, however purely by making his opinion public, he has put pressure on governments the world over to make comment on Gay marriage, and these governments and leaders, such as our own Julia Gillard, who do not share President Obama’s liberal views are being asked why.
No longer is the question why should they be allowed to get married, but it is – why shouldn’t they be allowed to get married?
In a country that goes to war to ensure other nationalities have equality, here in Australia not even all of our citizens have equality. There is no logical rational behind this type of action. We spend millions even billions of dollars every year to ensure human equality world wide, but cannot guarantee it in our own backyard.
However, with the controversy a statement like this has caused, it is fair to say that President Obama’s opinions are not the same as those shared by the mass population.
But the question I pose is why? I’ve listened, I’ve heard the arguments, but I still am yet to hear anything that I feel enables others to pose this type of discrimination on people in Australia, America, or any other country, who are gay and want to marry. It’s safe to say that some of the argument are just down right ridiculous. Now me personally, I am not gay – I am a happy heterosexual, however my rights should be the same rights shared by all Australians.
People have argued religion as the reason behind not allowing gay marriage. Now – I don’t want to end up in an anti religion rant, however, I think that we need to take stock, and realise that religion is not all it is cracked up to be. Now I’m not saying don’t believe in God – go for it. This is not about my religious beliefs, this is about understanding and realising that times have changed. Religion can be linked back to almost every war or terrorist attack, it is the source of genocide, it is the source of much discrimination and fighting world wide – but is religion not meant to be peaceful? The bible may not agree with gay marriage, but there are a lot of things that the bible condemns in relation to marriage – that heterosexual couples still do – divorce, adultery, sex before marriage. It also needs to be remembered, that not everybody is religious, and not everybody believes that you are going to burn in hell for being gay – why is one somewhat minority group allowed to dictate to another somewhat minority group?
There is also the other religious argument that marriage was created in the bible so therefore what it says goes. Now, this may be true. But I know if and when I get married, it won’t be a religious decision, it won’t be to justify my union in the eyes of god, it won’t be to ensure that I ‘get into heaven’ or to not commit sin – it will be because I want to make a commitment to the one I love in the eyes of others that I love, it has almost become a right of passage rather than a religious ceremony. If god agrees, then so be it, if god doesn’t – well I’m sorry God – but if as the bible says – you created all of us – then not only did YOU create gay people, but you also have to respect what you created.
Now this leads into the argument that gay marriage disrespects the sanctity of marriage. This argument I feel is the more ludicrous of the lot. To begin with, have heterosexuals not been ‘disrespecting the sanctity of marriage’ for many years? With the divorce rate somewhere around 2 out of every 3 marriages ending, and cheating, lying, violence, and all the other horrendous things heterosexuals who are suppose to be in love do to each other, why do we think that gay couples could possibly make marriage any worse? I believe in marriage, I also believe that sometimes things don’t work out and that divorce can sometimes be the best option, but as far as sanctity of marriage is concerned, should we not be allowed to divorce then? – why draw the line in the sand at gay marriage? If cheating is legal, if divorce is legal, why can’t gay marriage be legal?
And my favourite argument for not allowing gay marriage – marriage was set up to foster baby making. I know plenty of straight married couples, who have no intensions of having children, I also know gay couples, not married who have children. Clearly marriage does not dictate ones ability to have kids – therefore why should we stop people getting married just because some are too scared that gay people will have kids? And for that matter – why are we making the marriage debate about children? Just because a gay couple gets married does not mean that they are going to raise an army of kids, and even if they did, why would it matter? Gay people don’t necessarily breed gay people the same way as straight people don’t necessarily breed straight people, are we still really concerned that a child have two loving parents of the same gender is worse than one parent or an abusive home or no parents? Irrespective of your beliefs on gay couples having children – it is not anybodies right to stop them expressing their love and getting married.
In my mind there is no good reason why gay couples shouldn’t be allowed to get married. For straight people to argue that gay marriage demeans marriage, then they are saying that gay love is somehow less than straight love, and that is straight up discrimination. All love is love, being gay is not illegal, no laws are being broken, no one is getting hurt or taken advantage of. For the few close minded people – who somehow think they have a right to express negative comments on this matter – WHAT GIVES YOU THAT RIGHT? Free speech or no free speech, gay people getting married does not affect you, they are not asking you to celebrate them, they aren’t even asking for your approval, all they are asking for, is the right to express their love in a legally binding and recognised way.
Being gay is not a choice, the same way that being female, male, black, white, Australian, America, Asian, Middle Eastern are not choice. We stamp out racism where ever possible – LETS STAMP OUT HOMOPHOBIA TO!!
And plus – did you see the gay wedding on Sex and the City – GREATEST.WEDDING.EVER – get me there now!!!
an extraordinary existence 