hellisforhorses wrote:
Streen wrote: I'm generally an open-minded person. I don't have a problem with other people's beliefs or behaviors since they usually have no effect on me. That being said, the marriage equality issue in the US being settled by the supreme court is something I have a problem with. Why? The supreme court does not write law. They completely circumvented the people of this country. Don't get me wrong, people are free to do as they please in the US as long as it's legal. But having no say in something that happens here is mildly insulting and robs us of our right to vote.
Homosexuality does not affect me. To that I will admit. That's not what bothers me. It's when things are decided for me that I am bothered.
Honestly, people are stupid and shouldn't be allowed to vote on things that affect people in this way. There, I said it. People allow their little viewpoints and beliefs to rob others of their rights, and it's ridiculous. It was the same deal with interracial marriage. The Supreme Court had to make that legal because the people refused to due to their racist viewpoints, and because of those viewpoints, people in love were unable to express it in the same way as others who were just like them, just as much in love, but the same race.
I've said this in my Ethics class and I'll say it again: this issue is almost a mirror image of what happened back in 1967, and the only way it's ever going to end is in a Supreme Court ruling. Why did I think that? What could drive me to be so pessimistic about it? Well, it's religion. People are elected to high positions based off of their religious views, people vote with their religious views in mind, and people's viewpoints on certain issues like same-sex marriage are unlikely to change, no matter what intellectual appeal occurs due to these views. Believe me, I know. I've had a ton of debates and discussions on the subject. If you're in the North and everyone's more open-minded, that's fine, but what you fail to realize that in the bible-belt of the South, there's no way fair legislation will ever be passed legalizing such a thing. It would be more likely that I sprout wings and fly to Mars. When I tell people this, they would often reply "Well, why not move somewhere where it is legal? Why do they have to change it everywhere?" This is a stupid argument. Why should someone have to abandon their lives, their families and their friends just so they can have the same right as their next-door neighbor who just happens to be straight? The idea is absurd!
If someone's anti-homosexuality, or anti-gay marriage, and they are super-offended by the idea that this is a thing now, like some folks in South Carolina who are pitching a fit over it as we speak, good for them; here's a pro-tip: don't get gay-married if it's an offensive idea to you. That's the extent their beliefs should matter on the issue. I don't care what anyone's god says about it; it's not their right to infringe on mine, nor is it my right to infringe on theirs. I'm a straight married guy. I've felt extraordinarily guilty about the fact that I could just waltz into any place I wanted to and marry someone, but some of my friends couldn't. It's not fair, it's not just, and the idea that a popular vote should be the 'end-all' decider of all issues is not correct. Sometimes, we shouldn't have a say. I know that's about as Un-American as someone can get without burning a flag or something, but that's the way I feel.
Exactly! The issue is when the fate and rights of a minority is in the hands of an unenlightened and non-caring majority. At a point the government has to step up and protect the minorities in question, it can't be left to the majority alone. Look at Russia for instance. The conditions for LGBT people there are quite grim at the moment. A recent social experiment in which two men walked hand in hand (no kissing, no excessive touching, simply hand to hand) down a street in Russia proved how bad it is. They got yelled at, almost attacked! I couldn't actually watch the whole of the video, so I don't know if it went further, it was just so uncomfortable. The majority of Russian citizens think that homosexuality is not only a choice, but a major sin! That majority would never vote in favour of the LGBT minority, and as the government there isn't concerned about protecting LGBT rights; they don't have any! For many years it's been somewhat similar (though not nearly as bad!) in the US, with religion being what people have used to limit the rights of others. Now the US government stepped up and gave the LGBT population the rights they should have. If people didn't want the government to make the call, they should have gotten it done themselves, that's how I think about it.
Some has said it goes on the expense of religious folk, but we have this law here in Norway, also including the right for a priest to not do the ceremony if it goes against their religious beliefs. Then the couple can ask for a priest being hired from another city, and still get their ceremony and their marriage. Hence all are satisfied. So it can work in favour of everyone involved when people are prepared to show some mutual respect and lenience.
Just one more way that we can mend the imbalance to this world. 
