Legality of Same Sex Marriage

If you were to look up marriage in the dictionary, the definition would look something like this: marriage {mar-ij} noun: the legal union between a man and a woman as husband and wife. Notice that there is no mention of same sex couples becoming united in marriage. As a matter of fact, there are only 8 states in the United States of America that have not banned marriage equality. One of which is the state of Washington which is considered an abstention as it has passed no legislature for or against marriage equality. We the people of the United States of America need to work to bring equality to all citizens regardless of their sexual orientation. Therefore, we need to petition to bring about the legality of same sex marriage.
The fact that same sex marriages have been ignored for this long is inexcusable. While some may say that there have not been enough arguments for equality for it to be taken as far as congress to fight for its legality, there are in reality many valid, hard hitting, and intellectual arguments for equality that have simply been ignored. These arguments are concerning the religious rebuttal against equality, the traditionalist arguments against equality and the flat out homophobic rebuttal.
In 1990 the census showed that an estimated 30,414,790 Americans were members of a Christian church (The Top 10 of Everything Russell Ash).  That’s about 11% of the U.S. population, excluding those who are Christian but are not members of a particular Parish. In the same census, there were about 8,000,000 Muslims and 5,981,000 Jews. What do these faiths have in common? They make up the top 10 religious affiliations in the US for the 1990’s and they all believe in “one man, one woman.” In fact, most world religions believe “one man, one woman” is the definition of marriage. However we cannot allow decisions such as this to be made based on religious beliefs.
Some religious people may argue that non-heterosexuality is ‘detested by God’ or ‘a perversion.’ But is it not also God who said all people are created equal? In Genesis 1:27 the point is stated ‘God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.’ So would this not mean that He [God] created them of Himself –equally? Homosexuals have the same anatomy as other humans; therefore, should they not be treated as one? Besides this, to prohibit same-sex marriages because God forbids this act is merely what one religion may believe. This act would be equal to not allowing other religion, like the Jewish, to marry if that is what the Christian God just happened to believe. Is it not against the United States Constitution to bring church and state [the law] together? (An Equal Opportunity © Kari Jo Freudigmann)
The debate over the freedom to marry is about the right to enter into the state-created institution of civil marriage only. While many same-sex couples would enjoy their marriage to be accepted by religions, that is not the issue at hand. Many people seem to be blurring the line between the “sacrament” of marriage, a religious ceremony before a congregation, and civil marriage, a union between two consenting adults that is recognized, and approved of, by the courts. Religious and civil marriage is not the same thing. While a church may view a couple to be “married” the state may not recognize it. Even if the state approves a marriage, civil marriage, a church has every right to not accept it is a “marriage”, the sacrament. Many try to argue that the Bible says marriage is between one man and one woman; that it is a religious institution. Be that as it may, that only applies to Sacramental Marriage. Civil marriage is a government institution that grants hundreds of state rights and over 1,000 federal rights. When a couple goes to the County Clerk’s office for a marriage license, religion plays no role. The U.S. Constitution makes no mention of the Bible or any other religious text. There is no clear definition of exactly what constitutes marriage – for example, at least in the Old Testament; polygamy was permitted, since several of the biblical figures had multiple wives, including the first two Patriarchs, Abraham and Isaac.
It’s been said that we must protect traditional marriage and the traditional family. Protect it from what? Same-sex marriage could not cause harm to someone’s marriage and family. No documentation exists which gives credence to this myth. In fact, European countries which have given massive legal recognition to same-sex relationships have reported no harm to opposite-sex couples and their families. What is traditional anyway? At one point in time marriage was defined as only unions of the same race and religion and wives were property of their husbands; but this is no longer considered the definition as we have inter-faith and inter-racial marriages everyday. If it is an issue of protecting “tradition” then we must also take away the right for African-Americans and Caucasians to marry and for Jews to marry Christians. Trying to maintain “tradition” in the arena of marriage would only cause uproar and insurgence in our society. “Tradition” does not even have a requisite amount of time of having existed for it to be considered a “tradition”. For example, if a family went on a picnic for the first-born child’s birthday 3 years in a row, they might consider it “tradition” even though it’s a practice that hasn’t been around for very long. It’s been said that “marriage is what it always was.” Actually, no, it’s nowhere near what it “always was”. “Marriage” and “family” are not very traditional at all. For instance, Abraham and Sarah were half-siblings, sharing a father. Jewish law once required childless husbands to marry a second time, with or without divorcing their first wife. In the Roman Empire, only the upper one-third of Romans had the legal right to marry; everyone else lived together outside the law. For its first five hundred to a thousand years, the early Christian church considered marriage a tainted, earthly institution, some rendered unto Caesar, and it wasn’t officially declared a sacrament until 1215. In English and American law, women didn’t have the right to be their children’s guardians until the 19th Century. While American states were battling for nearly 150 years over whether to recognize each others’ divorces, Protestant denominations were roiled by the question of whether it was sinful to remarry divorced people whose ex-spouses were still alive. Marriage has always been a social battleground, its rules and borders shifting to suit each economy, each era, and each class.
Underlying the religious and traditionalist arguments against equality is one word: homophobia. It’s not that there is a lawful and reasonable basis for inequality, but rather that people are afraid of those that are different from them. Take World War II for example; not only was there an attempted genocide against those different from the Aryan standards, but here in America we were also discriminating against others for things that were beyond their control. The Japanese Americans were being sent to internment camps because the US government feared that they were all spies. During the draft, incoming oriental soldiers were asked “If you were to meet the Japanese Emperor in combat, would you kill him?” If their answer was yes, they were sent to prison for treason because they believed they were lying; if they said no, they were sent to prison for treason. They were oppressed because Americans were afraid of them. Humans hate what they fear, fear what they do not understand, and do not understand what they do not know. Those who know little about something can understand little about that thing, therefore they come to fear and hate that thing. The same applies to human relations. If someone does not know another person, the human instinct is to quickly judge others based from what they perceive to see about that person. For example if you were to see an African-American adolescent wearing his pants so his boxers were showing, you might automatically assume he’s involved in a gang. Your mind would jump to this conclusion self-consciously because that’s what you perceive that person to be like based off what you’ve seen of him, and based off the stereo-typical gangster. However, upon following this young man, you might find he’s actually a straight-A student with no involvement in gang activity and that he lost his belt or it had broken. Before you found that out about him, you were afraid of him, because you did not understand him because you did not know him.
Sadly, this is how homosexuals are treated in today’s society. People hate those who are different because they do not understand those differences.
On October 6, 1998, 21-year-old college student Matthew Shepard was tied to a fence in Laramie, Wyoming, pistol-whipped, then left for dead in the freezing night. Why would such a heinous be committed against one person? The reason was because Matthew Shepard was homosexual. (An Equal Opportunity © Kari Jo Freudigmann)
It is legal in 33 states for a company to let go or simply not hire a person on account of their sexual orientation, giving them two choices: speak up about who they are and possibly get fired, or stay silent and keep their jobs. This is not in anyway fair, nor should it be lawful.
The third way that homosexual’s rights are not being treated fairly is homosexuals’ unjust treatment in the workplace. Harassment against the majority and even other minorities is taken more seriously that that of homosexuals. Not only this, some companies do not hire a person because he or she has a different sexual orientation. This treatment would be identical to that of religion or ethnicity – and it is wrong to not hire a person because they are African-American or because they are Muslim. It is in the rights of every American citizen that they not be profiled because of race, gender or sexual preference - to be not hired because of this is unreasonable. (An Equal Opportunity © Kari Jo Freudigmann)
There is no reason to fear homosexuals as the only difference between them and heterosexuals is the sexual preference. Homosexuals don’t have eyes in the back of their head, nor do they seek to take over the world.
The real reason that same-sex marriage is not allowed is fear. Whether it is fear of God’s wrath, fear of “traditional marriage” being threatened or even fear of homosexuality itself, fear is the underlying reason behind marriage in-equality. What is not realized is that there is nothing to fear about same-sex marriage.  For those who fear it for religious reasons, it’s not them that God would pour his wrath down upon, so it’s not their problem. Those who fear it threatens “traditional marriage” need to realize that there really is no such thing as “traditional marriage” as every country and ethnic background does marriage differently. As far as the homophobes go, it’s simply ridiculous! It’s not as if homosexuals are seeking to enslave all of heterosexual humanity! They’re not aliens from a different planet who plan to eat human kind, and they’re not the Devil, nor are they demons. They are human beings as well, with the same anatomy as heterosexuals, the same number of chromosomes, and the same capability of emotions. The only difference is that one prefers to be sexually active with the other sex, and the other prefers the same sex.
Congress should not be allowed to decide who can and cannot marry based off gender, this is unconstitutional.
According to the United States Constitution, marriage should not be defined by religion but by a person’s rights. To deny a U.S citizen the right to marry the person he or she loves – regardless of gender – should be against the law. More U.S states and nations of the world have complied with allowing a civil union rather than marriage. A civil union is similar to marriage in that the couple is allowed benefits and responsibilities as a married couple would; however, couples brought together by a civil union do not share these rights to the same degree. If both people in a “couple” are United States citizens, by law they should be allowed to marry without gender being an issue. (An Equal Opportunity © Kari Jo Freudigmann)
Religions are what have defined marriage as being between one man and one woman, and therefore, there needs to be changes made to the definition. By allowing religions to define WHAT marriage is, we have in essence allowed religions to define WHO can marry. That goes against the Constitution, one of the most important documents in American history. “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men were created equal and were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” This is a line from the Declaration of Independence, the document written to assert our independence from Great Britain. In the issue of homosexuals however, that line seems to have been forgotten. This needs to be changed, and quickly.
Homosexuals are the same as everyone else, and therefore need to be given the same right as everyone else. If we don’t do something to change the in-equality in marriages, we are going to end up estranging and alienating them more than we already have. Many homosexuals are shunned by their families; they don’t need their government doing the same to them. It is only when we change the laws so that homosexuals have legal equality that we will truly be nation of “liberty and justice for all.”

Special thanks to Kari Jo Freudigmann for her permission to reprint excerpts from her essay “An Equal Opportunity”.