In the country of the free, should our government have the right to decide what is a marriage and what is true love? If a marriage is supposed to be any two people joined together in love that want to spend the rest of there lives together, then it should be ok for any two people, regardless of sex to be married. Now, if the problem really comes down to religions being two strong in our government, then rename it. The two people spending their lives together don't have to have the religious title of marriage. Call it Life Partners, then it is not discriminating against the two people by taking away health benefits and tax breaks of marriage. Also, if we discuss this topic, we also need to address some old laws that are still on the books, even if these laws are not enforced. In my knowledge of these laws, I don't believe they are enforced, but it is still stopping some peoples' way of life. The laws against oral and anal sex, were brought into law by religions in a time when they were a stronger influence on our government. These laws should be removed from the books seeing as it is in no way the governments right to stop people from expressing themselves, even sexually. Making the act illegal is pretty much telling gays that showing their love for each other is illegal. There is nothing yet to prove if people are born gay or become gay by choice. I don't really think that it matters. I do know that gay sex has and does occur in nature. For as long as we have studied animals they have participated in gay sex. This doesn't prove that it is all ok, but it ends the argument of whether it is natural. People are different anyway, so if they can love people on a purely emotional level the sex of the partner shouldn't matter. I defend the rights of people because I see a huge problem in our country when we are oppressing people that are our equals. If the act disgusts you, that is fine -- don't partake in anything, but don't vote in ways to ruin the lives of others because you aren't open minded enough to see that some people may want things different than you. Do they harm and offend you? Is it something our government needs to take action on? No, it isn't. The government shouldn't have to ever even mention it. The common decency of our people shouldn't have made it a issue in the first place. Religions say being gay is a sin or wrong. Well, this I don't have much to say about. It is true that it is believed to be wrong by most religions. On the other hand, religions placed people and jail for claiming the earth was round, and that earth was the center of the universe. Even if you are a truly religious person it says that we are not here to judge others. If being gay is a sin, let that be dealt with by God on his own good time. It isn't up to his people to punish them. I found it terrible that a church went to the funeral of a gay that was murdered and held up signs saying he deserved it and how the young boy would go to hell. If this is what God and Jesus has taught you, then I think there is some serious problems with how you interpret your faith. I personally don't care whether being gay is right or wrong. Does it matter if it is? No, it isn't up to us to decide. It isn't up to anyone. Tell me if there is any reason we have to try to stop it unless you have a fear of it affecting yourself. So maybe if you hate gays so much you should look at yourself and question why you really fear them, because I don't know many gays that go around saying how much they hate straight people and how disgusting that is. If you have a problem with it, deal with it and say, "I can't handle it, but I don't need to anyway" and let some people live their own lives.
-Danman
E-mail Danman at danman@inw.net