{"id":239,"date":"2009-11-11T10:04:27","date_gmt":"2009-11-11T10:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/11\/in-support-of-gay-marriage.html"},"modified":"2009-11-11T10:04:27","modified_gmt":"2009-11-11T10:04:27","slug":"in-support-of-gay-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/11\/in-support-of-gay-marriage.html","title":{"rendered":"I Support Same-Sex Marriage. Why Don’t You?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think the Facebook group called “Against gay marriage? Then shut the f*ck up and don’t get one” says it best. Here in NY, Governor Paterson (of whom I am not, generally speaking, a fan) has put a resolution calling for a vote on a bill allowing same-sex marriage<\/a> on the state’s agenda. That makes me just a little bit more likely to vote for him.<\/p>\n

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I cannot imagine another ethical position to take other than supporting our fellow citizens’ right to marry. To criminalize love, to deny a portion of our society equal rights under the law, simply because of your fears, prejudices, or religious views, is despicable to me.<\/div>\n
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<\/p>\n

I don’t see how my<\/i> marriage is devalued by someone else’s. Instead, I feel it is strengthened by the knowledge that the institution is so desirable that gays and lesbians will fight tirelessly against an enormous backlash to have access to it. <\/div>\n
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Now, I understand that many of us have religious reasons to believe there’s something inherently wrong about same-sex marriage (or even same-sex partnerships of any kind). I don’t share them. But more than that, I believe our country was founded, not solely on Christian principles, but on the principle of religious freedom<\/i>. No one religion should get to dictate the actions of our entire nation’s people. No religion at all<\/i>, theoretically, ought to have a say (ahem, separation of Church and State) in matters of law. <\/div>\n
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If you’re a religious authority with a problem marrying homosexuals, fine, don’t do it, but why should society as a whole ban the practice because of your beliefs?<\/div>\n
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Why on Earth would anyone be against it? I honestly want to hear something<\/i>, anything, that would make the counterargument make the slightest bit of sense to me. If you’re against gay marriage, please explain your position. I want to understand how you can look your fellow humans in the eye and tell them they are second-class citizens and unworthy of the same civil rights as yourself. <\/div>\n
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I cannot imagine another ethical position to take other than supporting our fellow citizens’ right to marry. To criminalize love, to deny a portion of our society equal rights under the law, simply because of your fears, prejudices, or religious views, is despicable to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,25,33,5],"tags":[70,75,69,74,72,73,71],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-hillary-fields","category-political-ethics","category-sexual-ethics","category-social-ethics","tag-civil-rights","tag-equal-rights","tag-gay-marriage","tag-gay-rights","tag-governor-paterson","tag-marriage-equality","tag-same-sex-marriage"],"yoast_head":"\nI Support Same-Sex Marriage. 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She attended St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she studied classics and philosophy, and then respectfully declined to spend the rest of her life in an ivory tower. Instead, she turned to the life of a writer and editor, penning three romance novels published by St. Martin's Press and contributing features to such periodicals as Cosmopolitan magazine. Her fascination with the moral dilemmas that crop up in everyday life--and the many intriguing ways people handle them--has always colored her writings. Now, that interest is leading her to take the discussion online; where, hopefully, the addition of reader feedback will bring these quotidian quandaries--and their potential solutions--vibrantly to life. When she's not plumbing the ethical mysteries of humanity, her passions include cooking (especially baking), origami, kittens, reading, watching really bad television and playing online scrabble. 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