I was listening to
NPR the other day, and heard
this piece on the Diane Rehm show, an interview with Johnathan Rauch about his book
Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America. It was a really awesome interview, albeit with a few points I disagreed with. Take no fear to heart, it was actually because the author (a gay man himself) was being too “conservative” about his demands for gay equality in America at the moment. He argued for a state by state approach to securing gays’ rights to marriage, while I advocate a federal piece of legislation clarifying the civil rights of gays in America.
Anyone who thinks they should wait should consider this:
Could you imagine knowing that you could never have your true love recognized by your government? Could you imagine waking up every day, knowing that no matter what you tried, no matter what loophole you found, you could never have this one basic tenant of life bestowed upon you?
I couldn’t. I couldn’t imagine living and knowing that even though I resided in a country that has always prided itself on the liberty and freedom, I wasn’t allowed to love the one I was with. This isn’t a case of anything less than civil rights for all. Equal privilege. Separate institutions are inherently unequal. All of that. A word to the wise, many people told the blacks of America to wait for a while when they were moving towards true equality (in the eyes of the law) in the late 50’s and early 60’s. “The nation isn’t ready” they were told. This phrase seems as ridiculous to me now as it should have then. If the nation isn’t ready, then what do the gays of today belong to? Another country? No, they
are the nation. They are those who are oppressed, but they are also those who make this country work. This is a matter of treating our neighbors, our siblings, our parents, and our children like human beings. This is not a time for religious rhetoric. Disagree with a lifestyle, that’s fine, we can’t legislate that. But just as we can’t legislate away hatred, we can’t legislate away sexual choice.
And this does not open the gates to polygamy, contrary to arguments. All this does is ensure that the promise of being able to marry any
one person that you want is available. That’s right, any
one person. Multiple marriage partners isn’t even a consideration in such a debate, but simply a straw-man thrown up by the conservative right to prey on even the liberals’ fears of polygamous relationships.
This is a matter of sexual equality. It’s the case now that only men can marry women and only women can marry men. Who you are allowed to marry is being determined not by your feelings, but by your gender. We have laws that protect against this kind of discrimination, but yet they aren’t being enforced in this matter.
Too many people think this isn’t their problem. And they’re wrong. If we allow peoples to lose some of their rights and privileges, we pave the way for ourselves being similarly treated. These rights and privileges aren’t given to us by a government, they are protected by it. It would be nice to see such protection equilaterally applied.
justinª