Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage* according to Frank Sinatra. The last several years have seen a monumental shift in public opinion about gays and lesbians marrying#. One more step in being recognized and treated as human beings. Trying to understand the great fuss about it hurts my head.
The whole religion thing gets to me. Marriage, contrary to what you may have heard from the pulpit is NOT religious, it is civil. You can have all the religious ceremonies you want but until government acknowledges it, you are NOT legally married. Not saying the religious accouterments are a bad thing, just that they are non-essential. Marriage is about heirs and property and whatever other benefits governments see fit to bestow on couples who are married. If you think that isn't so, try getting a divorce.
"It will destroy traditional marriage". If the only thing keeping your marriage together was the fact that your wife/husband couldn't marry their girlfriend/boyfriend then you have more problems than you think. By the way, there is nothing traditional about a marriage being between one man and one woman. Ask Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov who just approved a second (forced) marriage between an unwilling 17 year old and a 59 year old police chief, already married.
And of course, people keep running to the Bible to defend their positions. Why? The Bible is not really relevant to the situation. Here is why. Go back 175 years to times when people were arguing about slavery. There are a great many verses in the Bible supporting slavery and many that can be used to oppose it. It split the Baptist Church as the Southern Baptists followed the pro-slavery verses. Of course the anti-slavery folks won about 150 years ago at some huge cost in lives to the American nation because it was the right thing to do. And other than at some White supremacist gatherings you are unlikely to hear verses from the Bible quoted to prove that Blacks are inferior and should be held in slavery because God said so.
With any amount of luck, in a few years, other than from bigoted homophobic cults, the same will be said for homosexuality and all related LGBTQ folks.
*Of course, if you study Latin before Philosophy you end up with Horace before Descartes
# I am all in favour. Why should they be happier than the rest of us?.
The whole religion thing gets to me. Marriage, contrary to what you may have heard from the pulpit is NOT religious, it is civil. You can have all the religious ceremonies you want but until government acknowledges it, you are NOT legally married. Not saying the religious accouterments are a bad thing, just that they are non-essential. Marriage is about heirs and property and whatever other benefits governments see fit to bestow on couples who are married. If you think that isn't so, try getting a divorce.
"It will destroy traditional marriage". If the only thing keeping your marriage together was the fact that your wife/husband couldn't marry their girlfriend/boyfriend then you have more problems than you think. By the way, there is nothing traditional about a marriage being between one man and one woman. Ask Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov who just approved a second (forced) marriage between an unwilling 17 year old and a 59 year old police chief, already married.
And of course, people keep running to the Bible to defend their positions. Why? The Bible is not really relevant to the situation. Here is why. Go back 175 years to times when people were arguing about slavery. There are a great many verses in the Bible supporting slavery and many that can be used to oppose it. It split the Baptist Church as the Southern Baptists followed the pro-slavery verses. Of course the anti-slavery folks won about 150 years ago at some huge cost in lives to the American nation because it was the right thing to do. And other than at some White supremacist gatherings you are unlikely to hear verses from the Bible quoted to prove that Blacks are inferior and should be held in slavery because God said so.
With any amount of luck, in a few years, other than from bigoted homophobic cults, the same will be said for homosexuality and all related LGBTQ folks.
*Of course, if you study Latin before Philosophy you end up with Horace before Descartes
# I am all in favour. Why should they be happier than the rest of us?.
I also wonder what the problem is. If two people want to get married why shouldn't they? I think the religious zealots are confused.
ReplyDelete"Traditional marriage", is that like when you could sell your daughter into marriage for a couple of cows and a sheep or two??
ReplyDeleteJono, they are always confused when it comes to treating people as human beings
DeleteKulkuri, in some cultures you have to pay to get rid of them which is why in North America the bride's parents traditionally pay for the wedding.
As we here in the US await the Supreme Court ruling on the issue, the public has begun to realize that support of the right to marry whomever you want will not lead to the apocalypse as some on the far right have warned. I just hope that the Justices ( who are notoriously sheltered from the real world) will also see the justice in this supporting this right.
ReplyDeleteI hope so too, aitbr
DeleteI've never understood what the big deal is, either, and it's high time there was a true and complete separation of church and state. They say it exists now, but it only takes a bit of research to uncover the religion-based biases that are still entrenched in the system. The scary part is that sometimes we seem to be moving backward as more and more interest groups play the "freedom of religion" card as a way to justify their violations of the rights and freedoms granted under civil law. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteWhen religion infringes on the rights of others it is religious freedom; when others fight back it is persecution. It is BS but you can't blame them for trying as long as they are allowed to get away with it.
Delete