The Gay Marriage Debate

Back when Rick Santorum was still in the primary race, he directed a lot of his rhetoric against gay marriage arguing that it was no more bigoted to oppose gay marriage than it was to oppose polygamy and that he should not be called a bigot because of his stance on a social issue. Interesting how Republicans are always so fast to bring up polygamy, but if a Democrat uses interracial marriage in their defense about why traditional marriage definitions can and should be changed they refuse to acknowledge it as a legitimate parallel.

Now, this statement is not true, you are a bigot if you want to grant marriage rights to certain individuals while not allowing others to have them, but lets assume it was. If it's not bigoted to be defending a "traditional view of marriage" surely it must still be bigoted to say all gays should be put to death?

Many evangelical leaders have this opinion and are endorsing Mitt Romney. If Gov. Romney were truly not a bigot and just believed in protecting this "traditional view of marriage" he would surely distance himself by repudiating this comments, but he does not.

Who could allow a political party to openly discriminate against a group of people like this when a slight majority of Americans believe that gays should be allowed equal rights as heterosexuals? In a word, Evangelicals. Although Evangelical opinions represent a small minority of the popular opinion, they are an important part of the Republican vote and so Republicans are forced to pander to their views.

It's strange how Evangelicals will  always talk about how Democrats are restricting freedom of religion, but then try to impose their own religion upon others with anti-gay marriage and anti-abortion laws. Freedom of religion does not mean your religion rules all; freedom of religion means that everybody is free to have their own faith and not abide by your religious code if they do not want to.

Whether somebody has the right to marry somebody else who they have an intimate, loving relationship with is not a subject that is open to debate; it is a civil rights issue that needs to be addressed with equality for all. Times are changing; more and more states are legalizing gay marriage and a federal appeals court recently ruled the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits gay marriages as being recognized by the federal government, as unconstitutional.

The question now becomes whether Republicans will once again take a stand vehemently on the wrong side of the debate as they did during the civil rights movement or whether they will learn from their previous mistakes about bigotry and discrimination and finally join the side to protect those who don't have the equal rights that they deserve.