Passover seders at my house are so much fun. While people chow down on brisket, turkey, and potatoes, the table eventually comes alive with discussions of politics, where most of us end up ganging up on the sole Republican of the family. I have to say, though, that this guy had it coming. Here’s how it happened. I got up from the table to get myself a few more pieces of brisket, and upon my return, I heard this guy talking about how he thought gays weren’t happy. He of course said how much he loved his gay friends and said that he found them to be wonderful people, however he said he believed that gays should not be allowed to marry, adopt children, or become rabbis.
And he wonders why they’re not happy…
He said he found gays to be a social and biological anomaly, a viewpoint that both his wife (a liberal Democrat, mind you) and I (an even more liberal Democrat…though we’ll see how long the party affiliation lasts, but that’s for another day) took issue with. A biological and social anomaly? My immediate response to that comment was, "How Huxleyan of you." He didn’t exactly disagree with that analysis. To me, he seems to find something morally wrong with gays. He must if he believes that only men and women should be allowed to marry and adopt.
I’m sorry, but I guess I just find nothing morally wrong with homosexuality, and it’s certainly not something that has to be weeded out. I don’t know why a gay person is that way. Perhaps it’s psychological, perhaps it’s choice, perhaps it’s something inherent, potentially a genetic mutation of some sort…whatever. I don’t care. I accept them the way they are and the rest of the world should do the same. Painting these people as the poster-children of amorality does nothing to help the cause of freedom (which Republicans these days are all for unless you’re gay, Muslim, or black and trying to vote), especially when people want to introduce constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage.
Back up. I’m sorry, the politically correct phrase is "defend/protect the sanctity of marriage," not "ban gay marriage." That pisses me off more than just about anything else in this issue: the usage of words like "sanctity" and "sacred." These are coming straight out of the mouths of our legislators and executives. They’re using words heavily tied to religion and faith to try to create laws. That frightens me, because I don’t think a lot of the people in this country see it. These people are trying to restrict gay rights and "set them straight" because of their religious beliefs. The only widely-read sources where one will find homosexuality to be declared immoral are religious texts, namely the Bible (though it’s really the Torah, and I’d like to apologize of behalf of liberal Jews who’d like Leviticus to be torched). The Koran also has some verses that can be interpreted as denouncing homosexuality, but in this country the Biblical view is the one that takes center stage. Marriage is still considered by many to be more of a religious institution than a civil one, at least in terms of its overall significance. Let’s face it: far more people are married by various religious figured than by mayors or ship captains. But the idea of taking words derived from religion (and it doesn’t just have to be Christianity…simply religion) and using them to implement dictates in a country whose code of law is supposed to remain entirely separate from religious law shakes the American ideal to its very core, and threatens to knock our country off its foundations.
If religions want to denounce homosexuality, fine. I won’t abridge their freedom of speech, but they can do it in their churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, etc., if they so choose. Just keep it out of our halls of government. Once you remove the religious element from government, there’s no way they could keep gays from having the same rights as heterosexuals. If the government then tries to ram Nazi-like eugenics theory down our throats instead to say that homosexuals are inferior, then I suggest we do our damnedest to kick such people out of power.
Oh yeah, that guy also said that people who vote for Obama have their heads up their ass, because he’d be sitting around a campfire with our enemies, holding their hands and leading them in "Kumbaya." Need I say more?