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It’s the season in which bells are rung, carols are sung and we take to making the yuletide gay — perhaps, while filled with such merry cheer, we can do the same for marriage next year.
Gay marriage is an issue that has gained a lot of attention in the media recently as representatives of all kinds gear up for the 2012 election. In November 2009, Mainers decided whether the state would allow gay marriage or, like too many others, cling to the notion that gay marriage would corrupt the sanctity of the archaic institution.
Unfortunately, the latter won out.
But, with enough signatures, the people of Maine will be casting their votes on gay marriage once more on the 2012 ballot, and maybe this time, ignorance won’t prevail.
This issue is especially important to me because I know people who are gay and all they want is the right to be happy. And that, to me, is what this entire issue boils down to. There are people who want to be able to define who can be happy and who can’t; they want the authority to say that being gay makes a person unworthy of protection; they want to put a value on lives. It’s intolerable, plain and simple.
It would seem that gays are the new outsiders — the minority of the week or the generation — being denied because of the color of their love just as African Americans were denied because of the color of their skin. I wish I could change that, but I’m only one voice. A cacophony of voices must be heard before things start to change.
If a gay couple wants to get married, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with that. Gay couples should be allowed to get married. After all, this country was built on the belief that everyone should have the freedom to choose what they want (obviously to a certain extent). But as soon as gay and marriage end up in the same sentence, this nation throws a tantrum.
Those who don’t support the marriage of two gay individuals utilize the same tired, unfounded argument — it will destroy the sanctity of a tradition and be the grand undoing of every marriage, gay or straight. The corruption of children is thrown in there also to give the giant fallacy a bit of an extra, fictitious kick.
All of this is simply untrue, but the opposition has to think of something to use in their defense and that sorry case is the best they could come up with.
I work with a couple of men who are gay and they are indistinguishable from heterosexual males. It took a while before I even found out they were gay. Once I did, though, it didn’t change a darn thing.
At the end of the day, they were still my coworkers, and I didn’t treat them any differently.
They can do their jobs and do them to the best of their ability, just like me, so I could care less if they love men or women.
And should any of them want to marry their partners, I would be one of the first people wanting an invitation because I consider some of them my friends. I see nothing wrong with them wanting to marry the person they love.
But, at least for now, there are too many people who are going to stand in the way of someone else’s happiness, especially if they are gay. I hope this will change and I will fight until it does.
I have the freedom to marry because I love a man, but I want that freedom for everyone because it is not for me to choose what is right or wrong in the ways of adult love.
Gay people are the same as everyone else — they work the same jobs, play the same games and pay the same bills. Why can’t they hear the same wedding bells when they are in love?
Amanda Greenberg is a fourth-year journalism student.
