All men are created equal...

That is to say no matter to whom you might be attracted.

A Federal appeals court recently overturned a part of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act of 1996) to the delight of many progressives, liberals, and people such as myself who do not care what people do with their private lives. This decision that you can read about in the USA Today is really just a precursor to this debate moving up to the Supreme Court. The sooner the better. The more this topic is discussed and debated in public the better; that is how progress is made even if there are a few setbacks along the way.

Gay Marriage is a common sense issue to me. I just do not understand how so many people get nervous with the idea of two men or two women living next door having the same basic human rights as my wife and I. William M. Welch reported in his article that "because of the law [DOMA], same-sex married couples in states where such unions are permitted are denied federal benefits including Social Security protections and access to family health coverage as well as joint tax-filing status." 

Injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere the last time I checked. 

When Amendment 2 was on the Florida Ballot in 2008 (for the record I voted "No" but it passed nonetheless), one of the arguments against Gay Marriage was that it undermined marriage between a man and a woman. Really? How does any marriage (gay or straight) affect my marriage? The marriage next door is not my business; the one inside my house is and I certainly don't need the government or a church telling me how to live my life. 

Furthermore, it seems to me that with the divorce rate still hovering around 50% that "man and wife" haven't exactly been the ideal when it comes to making things work. Granted some people shouldn't have been married in the first place, but can't you try and gut it out for more than a year? Maybe we should give same-sex couples a chance to show the rest of us how to be married since so many heterosexual couples are unable to hold up their end of the bargain. Or we should take away all the rights married couples have period until everyone is treated equally under the law: "Oh, I am sorry, sir you can't come in to see your first son be born; we have revoked all visitation rights." That might change things up pretty quickly.

It comes down to this: we live in a vast, strange world where governments, small businesses, corporations, churches, families, friends, individuals are all trying to have a say in the way we should be living. A lot of that is negative influence, a lot of it is positive. In a world where so many people are trying to pull us in so many different directions with malicious or benevolent intent, why should we be legislating against something as basic and essential as love? Healthcare, foreign affairs, the deficit, and education are important issues that deserve healthy debate. 


Love between two consenting adults deserves admiration from each of us; nothing more, nothing less.