Well a little history was made today. Obama announced that on a personal level, he supports gay marriage and no sitting president has ever said that.
In North Carolina , voters voted to place into their constitution the legal and only acceptable definition of marriage which is between a man and a woman; they did this even though they had a law on their books that banned gay marriage; I guess they wanted to be doubly sure gays will never marry in North Carolina .
Obama took a political risk in what he said but he could no longer equivocate on his position and needed to make a stand especially since Vice President Biden let the cat out of the bag earlier.
The political risk is not as great as before because most Americans have no problems with gays marrying and more and more families have gay members; remember John McCain’s daughter and Dick Chaney’s daughter?
My position on homosexuality has been that the gay sexual preference is and has always been, never a “choice” but an act of nature and if you choose to believe that gays “choose” that lifestyle over a heterosexual lifestyle, than you are severely naïve and delusional.
Since gays are members of the human race they deserve all the rights and benefits afforded to all humans and members of society and that includes the right to marry.
The problem that a lot of people have with gay marriage is the “marriage” part; many will agree to “civil unions” but not to “marriage” and that is because to many “marriage” holds some type of religious connotation and in their minds, religions usually condemn homosexuality and therefore cannot possibly marry people they condemn.
The problem in this country is that we allow churches to “legally” marry people. In Europe you can ONLY be legally married by a justice who issues a “civil union” document to the two people getting wed. IF you wish to be married in a church of your choice, you can BUT that church marriage is only symbolic and holds no legal standing in the eyes of the government.
I hope you understood the difference but historically speaking, marriage between two people has always been a “civil” ceremony until the Catholic Church got involved; they wanted to control everything. In Europe and other places, the church is kept out of the legal marrying business as it should be here.
To me, the fact that we as Americans, can vote on whether gays can legally marry, is an abomination, especially when we stand for liberty and happiness for all.
Religion and religious beliefs are the root causes of many of our disagreements on social issues and what is frustrating is that the people who so strongly object to specific issues based on their religious beliefs have no idea where those beliefs came from and why they treat them as legitimate.
I have always got a kick out of the Baptists being so adamant against drinking alcohol cause’ the Bible tells them so but when confronted with the passage in the New testament that has Jesus turn water into wine for the enjoyment of the wedding guests, they simply stare into space.
In fact, the new movement of “what would Jesus do” or how would he feel about today’s issues points directly at the inclusiveness of Jesus throughout his ministry and the fact that he welcomed all who were society outcasts…think about that.
Anyway, I will have more on the religious argument against homosexuality later.
Let me just finish by saying that Obama did not go out on a dangerous political limb as many think; he said that these were “personal” views on homosexuality and that each state should decide if they wish to allow gays to “marry”; obviously North Carolina has decided but I feel the issue will be revisited there in the near future.
After Obama’s announcement, millions of dollars started flowing into his campaign coffers; many gays are intelligent and well educated and that makes many of them rich and not afraid to put their money where it will do the most good…
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