Vincent Ferrer/The Mirror
“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Unless you’re gay.
This was the case in California until last Tuesday, when a federal appeals court overturned Proposition 8. Prop 8, originally enacted in 2008, barred homosexual couples from getting legally married.
And unfortunately, this is still the case in a majority of states.
Many in opposition to the overturning of Prop 8 and possible subsequent federal legality cite that it would destroy “the sanctity of marriage.”
Let’s look at this argument for a second. “Sanctity” looks all too familiar to the word “sacred,” and that’s because they share the same root. Sacer is Latin for holy, divine, consecrated… all words which carry religious connotation. In fact, sanctity is prominently defined by Merriam-Webster as “the quality or state of being holy or sacred.”
So when you want to say that gay marriage would destroy the holy nature of a legal union, it completely ignores the separation of church and state. It goes both ways – the state can’t infringe on the right of a church, and a church can’t influence political policies.
Any religious institution has the right not to recognize gay marriage. Although I may be ideologically against this opposition, I would still defend the right of any religion to do so. As I said, the state can’t tell the church what to do.
And examples of this already exist. For one, the church technically doesn’t recognize divorce and any marriage occuring after the legal dissolution of the primary union. But should divorce be illegal? Of course not. Why would you force people who don’t love each to other to be united in a legal bond?
Conversely, why would you forcibly keep people who do love each other out of this legal bond? The illegality of gay marriage denies homosexual couples the equal protection provided by the Constitution.
Civil unions are the same, you say? Sounds awfully similar to “separate but equal.” It’s 2012… aren’t we past this by now?
Another popular argument is that legalizing gay marriage threatens the future of society, as gay couples can’t biologically have children of their own.
This, of course, is assuming that once gay marriage is legalized, all the straight couples in the world will magically come out the closet and we’ll all go extinct. Hmm…
In addition to all of this, consider all the children in need of adoption.
Consider Janice Langbehn, who was barred from visiting her dying partner in a Miami hospital in 2007.
Consider not being able to get down on one knee and profess your lifelong commitment to the person you truly love.
Write to your local elected officials. Join LGBTQ activist groups on your campus. Start your own peaceful protest.
You don’t have to be gay to fight for the idea that our entirecountry, not just California, should allow people who love each other to be legally married.
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