A Word on Prop. 8

It would seem that in a time when the world is moving forward, we are forced to see just how backwards and rooted we can be. Since November 4, the day where we as Americans looked past race and attack propaganda and voted for Barack Obama; it must also be the day that we failed one another by changing constitutions in order to remove rights. Where the Constitution has once been the doctrine of rights given and protected, it is now under attack which means we are under attack. Marriage is a home of sorts, a place that we choose to be, something that we bind ourselves to, not for benefits or paperwork but for honest love of another person. That person is not defined in any doctrine, the marriage compact rather states, “in sickness and health, for richer or poorer, until death due you part,” or something like that. To say that a marriage can only be recognized if it is between a man and a woman is equivalent to saying that we refuse to recognize the love and existence of homosexual couples.

I know that there are people that have religious reasons for being against gay marriage and they have the right to believe that and practice that belief in their own homes; the line must be drawn to exclude this religious belief from a political arena/action. This vote should have never been on a ballot to start with. The religious argument is that gay marriage or the redefinition of marriage will threaten heterosexual marriages which is a religious argument not a public one.

From a slightly different perspective, I have had the honor of loving someone so much that I thought of marriage. If it weren’t for a devastating illness we might have married but it was not to be. Through his illness I met others who were likewise finding it difficult to decide to marry or to find someone they wanted to marry. There were the rare couples though, that despite the often negative news, were able to overcome and decide to marry. Being truthful, most knew that their years were few but they wanted to be husband and husband or wife and wife or husband and wife for the time they had remaining. Having to know that these beautiful loving couples were unable to introduce the one they loved as their husband or wife was heart wrenching. It seems like so easy a thing , so minor a detail that no one should care but it is everything when everything else is a fight. When just waking to see the sunrise is not promised, or knowing that you will never have a 20th, a 10th or even a 3rd anniversary with the person you love. A disease/virus redefines life, the length of life and the health of life, a religion should not impose the same on us.

Do not stop those who want to love another, regardless of their sex. Let them have the same marital rights, privileges, and legal recognition that I have. It is about love, not religion or pride or any other propagandist argument.

I’ve attached Keith Olbermann’s comments on Prop 8 as well. Please encourage others to see through to their humanity and fight this. Together we can change the world for the better.