The Pursuit of Happiness

The hot topic on a lot of political burners today is the question on whether two consenting adults of the same gender have the right to get married.  A lot of the objection to same sex marriage comes from the religious moral majority stating that it does not jive with their holy doctrines.  Like it or not we live in a secular society giving people freedom from religious persecution, but to garner votes the right is pulling at the strings of the devout and standing on the platform of morality.  Other politicians are taking the stand that the states should be the ones that decide whether same sex marriage.

The problem with relying on the states to define marriage laws is that the United States contain 50 states and the citizens are free to move from state to state.  If two men who are married in a state that recognize same sex marriages and an employment opportunity comes up in a state that does not recognize same sex marriage then that happy couple has a more difficult decision to make than choosing to spend their lives together in a mutual partnership.  Do they choose to uproot their lives and move to a state where they lose their legal benefits of any married couple for a better employment opportunity or stay where they can be happy together?  It is a common sense situation being overly complicated by religiosity.

The Federal Government needs to recognize same sex marriages as a true marriage between two consenting adults, no more civil unions.  These people are choosing the partners they want to spend their lives with and should have access to equal benefits ans heterosexual couples do.  Having only seven out of fifty states recognizing same sex marriage truly limits these citizens as to where they are able to relocate and still have their freedoms.  Love and happiness are inalienable human rights and we as citizens in these United States need to stand up for ALL RIGHTS for the simple fact that if we allow our elected officials to determine who has rights and who does not, it is only a matter of time before they start infringing on your rights.  Interracial marriage was not accepted as legal throughout the union until 1967 with the Supreme Court ruling of Loving v. Virginia.  We are in the 21st Century, it is time to stop using Bronze Age text written by goat herders to influence modern doctrine.  Those same texts encouraged concubines, and now our modern society looks down on infidelity.  It is sad that people hide behind what their god "says" to influence their bigoted actions.

Our Founding Fathers stated that all men are created equal.  At the time that was written, slavery was thriving throughout our country, particularly in the South.  It was nearly a century after the Constitution was ratified that slavery was abolished (the same Bronze Age text was used to defend slavery as is used today to shun hate towards homosexuals) with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.  The Constitution was written for the time and there have been 27 amendments to it in the 225 years of its existence showing that times change and societies change.  In 1789 when the new Constitution came into play, only white male land owners were allowed to vote and blacks had no vote, lucky if they had citizenship. Women were expected to be background figures, just like the Bible stated.  We live in a time of equality.  It is sad that people still hold prejudices and bigoted views after all the hate that has reigned down throughout human history.  It is time that we start living life for today and stop living life for the mythology of yesterday.