essay
7:58 p.m. - 2001-03-29
ok guys, i know i am stupid and waited until 8 at night to post this and ask for criticism, but help a girl out, huh? hehe. e-mail me or sign the book. thanks! (c:
Imagine yourself when you were a child. You played in the sandbox with your friends and secretly envisioned your life as an adult. It was beautiful and innocent: you wanted to grow up, find the person of your dreams, marry them, and live on a small hill with a white picket fence around the house, happily ever after. Now you�ve grown up and there�s a problem: you�re gay.
This is the issue thousands of homosexuals face every day. In America, it is not possible for gay couples to get married in any state other than Vermont. They can live together for their whole lives and be completely faithful to each other, but marriage is not an option unless they travel north, all the way to the Vermont. This has long been a problem. Aside from the spiritual aspects, there are many things gays and lesbians are denied without marriage as a possibility: if one�s partner becomes seriously ill and must go to the hospital, there is question about who can make the medical decisions on their behalf; they cannot claim insurance; adoption of children is often difficult, creating wills, etc. The list goes on.
It is considered by many to be immoral for this sort of legal union to take place,and that America�s laws are weakened by it. Many of those who oppose same-sex marriage feel that homosexuals have been gaining a lot more freedom over the past decades, and that they are crossing the line and asking for too much when requesting that marriage be a possibility. Will Perkins, Executive Board Chairman of Colorado For Family Values states, �Clearly, legal marriage and its attendant benefits were created to promote and subsidize traditional unions because of those relationships' tangible, positive effects on society. Those who do not participate in traditional marriage are not second-class citizens, nor discriminated against, because they do not receive a legal recognition never intended for them.�
But if that is true, what, then, should be said to those other children playing in the sandbox? That they aren�t allowed to make their fantasies come true, because the people around them aren�t comfortable with the idea? To say that not allowing gays and lesbians to be married is not discrimination, is false. One�s sexuality is not something one has any control over. In this sense, Perkins�s stance is comparable, for instance, to one saying that African Americans shouldn�t be able to get married, either, because their skin is a different color. �While marriage may have originated under religious meaning, nothing in a secular society should prevent two consenting, unrelated adults from symbolizing their union and benefiting or suffering from economic or tax, death, employee advantages or disadvantages.� (Steve Levine.)
Same-sex marriage should be possible in all fifty states, not just one. Every person in this country should have the option of marrying the one they love, building that beautiful white picket fence around their house, and enjoying life to the fullest. Because, really, isn�t that what the American Dream is all about?