While the country is about evenly split on gay marriage in polls, supporters have yet to succeed at the ballot box. Statewide ballot measures on gay marriage have come up 31 times since 1998. Advocates for gay marriage lost each time. Yesterday, North Carolina voters banned gay marriage. Read the rest of the story at the Washington Post.
Will Gay Marriage haunt Obama in November?
In the deeply religious sections of our country you find people who firmly believe that marriage between two of the same sex is a sin. In North Carolina, Baptists remain the largest church in the state. I married a Baptist once and they don't even believe in dancing! More Democrats believe in same sex marriage than do Republicans. More and more of the younger population are not as easily influenced by what is taught in church, if they even bother to attend. They have become much more tolerant and are part of the latest Gallup Poll taken this month that showed plurality support for same-sex marriage nationwide, with 50% in favor and 48% opposed.
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"It has been noted that the biggest factor in the growth of support for same sex marriage and civil unions has been driven by younger Americans, including some young conservatives, who are far more favorably inclined to both civil unions and same sex marriage than seniors." Source: Wikipedia.
So, some of you will just have to wait until the older generation dies off and teachings of the church become more tolerant on this issue. I believe that attitude will change in my lifetime.
7 comments:
I don't think a majority should be able to vote for a minority, we will never win, the courts need to step in and resolve this inequality once and for all. If there is truly a separation between church and state then religion shouldn't be allowed into the mix. Women and blacks all had the same issues years back, equality is for all people, no matter of their sexual orientation too, who knows why God made some people gay, maybe so others learn to love us anyway and not judge us. Equal rights are not special rights, there are so many other countries that allow for gay marriage in the world now, the USA needs to stop being so third world on this matter. Equality and fairness is for ALL!
Joseph--thanks for always standing up for your beliefs and always doing it in a respectful way.
I wish someone could explain to me how, if homosexuals are given the same exact same rights as heterosexuals, but call it "civil union", how that is considered inequality.
If they get their way, would it then be bigoted to want to come up with a term that indicates and would be reserved for a traditional marriage? Why would we be forced to do THAT?
I respect the right of everyone to love and be with anyone they want to be with. Just don't FORCE it onme. I think that FORCING the rest of us to accept a different definition of "marriage" IS giving special rights to the minority.
So what rights are "bisexuals" demanding?
I was surprised that North Carolina banned civil unions, for both homo and heterosexuals.
When does "tolerance" tip the scales to appeasement?
I'm not too keen on marriage (legalized oppression) but others seem to find something appealing about it. The problem is that government has no business limiting legal contracts on the basis of gender (or body parts, take your pick). And certainly not based upon some random passage written by some random person two centuries ago.
Our country and our values are not founded upon the bible. They are founded upon the Constitution. In my opinion, you can't claim to be in favor of smaller government and less regulation if you support legislating one's desire to make a personal and life-long commitment to another.
Small-minded fear-driven straight people have been forcing their belief systems, their judgments, their dictionaries, and their violence upon gay people for too long. You, Anonymous, are trying to force others to accept YOUR definition of marriage. I reject it.
Laurel, I might agree with the oppression part and many homosexual people I know aren't comfortable with the "married" word mainly because they embrace their "difference". I respect that. As long as I can remember, people who I may have thought were married turned out to be "common law married", what ever THAT means. But are they forcing the issue?
Also please read above I want you to have the EXACT SAME RIGHTS as any other union of two loving committed people have.
The dictionary does NOT define the "one man, one woman" thing you suggest. I am decidedly NOT forcing anything. It is precisely the LGBT community pushing the issue, not us small minded, fear driven straight people.(please note I am not name calling here) We might be described as "pushing back".
Most people who are not gay just do not understand nor feel the discrimination Laurel, you are so right. Not to mention the entire unfair bi-national marriage thing for gays, I have two friends that married their spouses from overseas and were able to bring them and get them here to the states with resident visas via marriage without any problems whatsoever, I cannot do that with my partner, because we are gay. The USA needs to address this inequality and so many others like the perk married couples get went filing jointly, there are hundreds of marriage benefits for tax purposes married couple receive. Many heterosexuals just do not feel or see the discrimination because it is not happening to them, a majority should not be able to vote for a minority, the Supreme Court has shown this and overturned many unfair laws, like ones toward special education populations, we should be protected and treating all with fairness and dignity, gays do not have all the same freedoms in this country as heterosexuals have, I cannot marry my partner here in FL and I cannot bring him from overseas because we are gay even if we could marry, because the federal government is not recognizing gay marriage yet for immigration purposes. I love the quote by Albert Einstein that says, "A man must learn to understand the motives of human beings, their illusions, and their sufferings." How many of us really understand the sufferings of gays and all they have to tolerate and put up with, all the injustice and inequality? Gays are often treated like freaks and taunted throughout their entire lives, treated differently, very seldom being completely accepted. I applaud President Obama for finally taking a stand on marriage equality, finally, I have written him three letters personally on this issue. Gays deserve every single right that heterosexuals have now in this country, two peoples love should not be denied because of their gender. We need 100% marriage equality for gays.!
Thanks, Joe. I got a little emotional reading your comment.
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