I'll Give It To You Straight - Prohibiting Gay Marriage In A Free Country Sure Seems Queer To Me

Maybe it is the fact that homosexuality in my fine family lineage can be traced way back to Caesar Galba, who proudly rolled around ancient Rome in a chariot displaying a rainbow bumper sticker...

Maybe it is because I have spent half my life closely huddled next to other sweaty guys wearing spandex uniforms, playing with balls on perfectly manicured (baseball) diamonds, or slapping someone's ass to show my appreciation for their athletic prowess...

Or it could be the fact that on Sundays, the only day I have off, I allow my daughter to paint colorful smiley faces on my toenails while I am half asleep and reading the morning paper . . .

. . . Whatever it is, despite the fact that I am a happily-married heterosexual man homosexuality doesn't seem to bother me. And for some reason I don't think that my marriage to the most beautiful woman I have ever met would be threatened by a gay couple taking that same sacred vow. In fact, if a gay couple wants to openly declare their love and dedication for each other by entering into a legal and public marriage, their vow only strengthens my marriage because it enforces the idea that "marriage" is the coupling of two human souls in love, whether they be a man and a woman, two women or two men.

Call me nieve, but what other adults do in the privacy of their own relationship and bedroom has virtually no effect on my relationship with my wife. If two gay men moved in next door and got married, their marriage would not all of a sudden (or ever) diminish the meaning of my marriage.

If you think that allowing gays the right to marry somehow threatens the sanctity of your marriage, then you probably need to take a very close look at your own marriage.

Personally, I would rather acknowledge the marriage between two gay men who love each other than acknowledge the "marriage" of a straight couple who loathe each other but stay married because of the children, or the wife who stays married to an abusive husband because the church says divorce is a sin.

The opponents of gay marriage also claim that homosexual relationships don't last as long as heterosexual relationships, claiming that gays are more likely to commit adultery or enter into "open" relationships. But the facts just don't seem to back those claims:  

Fifty percent of all first (heterosexual) marriages end in divorce in America. Sixty seven percent of all second marriages and 74 percent of all third marriages end in divorce, thus increasing the likely-hood of unhappiness according to the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri.

In states that recognize or perform gay marriages, the number of divorces in 2009 (last year with full records) was 41.2 percent of the number of marriages. In the 36 other states that deny gay marriage, the divorce rate was 50.3 percent.

Gay people who marry just don't seem to threaten my marriage. "Straight" people like Newt Gingrich, who change wives like they do underwear does however threaten the sanctity of marriage.

There is also the simple fact that denying homesexuals the right to marry in a supposedly "free" country is down right hypocritical.

We invade sovereign nations to protect the rights of their minorities, but we make laws in our very own country to deny rights to ours. We teach our children about the evils of the holocaust in which millions of Jews and gays were put to death, but we allow "preachers" in America to call for the killing of homosexuals in the land of the free. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2n7vSPwhSU

In the classroom we have our children memorize the Declaration of Independence that states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal..." but then on Sundays we make them read a passage out of the bible that says, "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death..." but ignore the laws of Leviticus that state, "For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death." Leviticus 20:9. Or Leviticus 20:10 which states, "And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death."

If you want to take a literal interpretation of the bible then you must also make it punishable my death to swear at mom and dad, to cohabitate outside of marriage, and to have an affair. Laws like that will never pass in a civilized society, but laws prohibiting gay marriage do?

And now let's take a look at what Jesus said in the bible about homosexuals:

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That's right - Jesus didn't say a damn thing about gays in the bible. But what Jesus did say is, "Treat others as you want them to treat you."

Now, if you are willing to treat people with respect as long as they never come out with their homosexuality then you are forcing them to pretend to be someone they are not for their entire life. What happens when you repress sexual feelings for decades? The Catholic church is finding that out right now the hard way (no pun intended)...

While the Vatican forces the resignation of heterosexual priests who want the company of a woman, they cover up the abuse of gay pedophile priests and ship them from congregation to congregation, keeping sexual predators in the church.

The Catholic church and other "Christian" organizations are trying to push legislation which calls a six day old fetus a "citizen with full rights" but are willing to flush those rights down the toilet if that fetus grows up to be gay.

It seems that the Vatican and the Pope should clean up their own mess before sticking their nose into other people's private affairs. Like Gandhi once said, "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ."

I know that certain right-wingers who read this will make "jokes" about me being a closeted homosexual, but let me assure you - I am a full-blooded heterosexual man. I drive fast, play a loud guitar, lift heavy objects, talk with my mouth full, scratch myself indiscriminately, can burp the alphabet, and I buy the Sports Illustrated issue and don't read the articles and I have a fascination with Clint Eastwood movies.

I'm also married to a beautiful woman - And together we have two children in which we want to pass down not only the ability to throw a baseball, but the willingness to accept others for who they truly are and an attitude of tolerance and respect for all people.

Those who push or support anti-gay marriage laws in a free country like America will be judged harshly by history. It's time we get on the right side of history and finally live up to the phrase, "All men are created equal."