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.
