Staff Reporter
Proposition 8: An Emotional Argument
As the whole controversy over Prop 8 continues, I have given some thought to the idea of gay love. I have come to the conclusion that being gay is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s who you are and how God made you. You have just as much right to find love as a straight person does. It shouldn’t matter who you are attracted to; if you are happy, then that is all that should matter. After all, who are we to judge who someone should love? If being gay is not your thing, fine, but that doesn’t mean that you can force others not to be gay either. Does loving someone of the same sex make that person any less human than someone who is in love with a member of the opposite sex? The answer to that is no. You are still the same person you were before you came out. It’s not as if you have grown an extra eye, arm, leg, or any other body part.
Gay people are no different from straight people and everyone needs to understand this. So what if a boy loves a boy or a girl loves a girl? That does not mean that they deserve to be treated differently from anyone else. Besides, gay people make the world more diverse and more interesting. If everyone was straight, the world would be more boring. Also, especially for the ladies, having a friend who is gay is a good thing. Think about it. The best part about having a gay best friend is that when he or she compliments you, you know that they are not saying that just to hit on you since they are not interested in you. Also, they would be good people to go to for relationship advice or a shoulder to cry on.
Some people think that being gay is immoral and that it can be cured. To this I say, since when has it been immoral to love someone even if they are of the same sex? As long as that love is pure and true, it should be viewed as good, not a sin. As to the ridiculous idea that gay people can be “cured” of their homosexuality, being gay is not like being a druggie or an alcoholic, people. You can’t choose to be gay like you can choose to take a snort of coke or a drink of vodka. Being gay is a genetic thing, something that can’t be changed. These people do not need rehab clinics or AA meetings. Instead, they need to be shown as much love and support as they deserve. Gay people have just as much right to be gay as a straight person has to be straight.
In conclusion, I find that gay people are normal people who just have a different view on love, which is fine by the way. Also, as a message to those who think or know that they are gay, but are ashamed to admit it for fear of being attacked or teased, come out anyway. You’re just lying to yourself if you say that you are straight and are not.
Masha Makhlyagina
Staff Reporter
Proposition 8: An Intellectual Argument
Gay marriage (noun), commonly referred to as same-sex marriage. Also referred to as sin, a sign of the world ending, an augury of our demise as a nation, and a plot of the mentally unstable group called the Homosexuals.
One of the first subjects people want to discuss with me, as one of Allies’ co-presidents, is same-sex marriage. They want me to explain what the hype is about and where the argument is going. All this comes on the heels of the recent overturn of Proposition 8 in California by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker. Undeniably, the panic of defining marriage has resumed since the initial voting of Prop 8. I can understand the anguish certain traditionalist groups are experiencing. After all, it was scary enough that we let people of different races marry, but now we have these out of control gays running around asking for legal rights.
Groups like The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) are screaming that this is a slippery slide and that Judge Walker’s ruling was undemocratic. To say that the process of Judge Walker overturning Prop 8 was undemocratic is laughable. A same-sex couple filed a lawsuit concerning discriminatory action that made its way through the CA legal system, only to reach the judicial branch of the federal government, plain and simple.
And the slippery slope argument is such a logical fallacy that I feel that the very opponents of gay marriage could do better. To say that legalizing gay marriage would leave the rainbow-colored door wide open for relationships of the (gasp!) pedophilic or (bigger gasp!) incestual nature is a naïve argument that uses a narrow moral code to blanket all relations as wrong or right and ignores the fact that the majority of the “participants” in such gasp-worthy relations are not CONSENTING ADULTS and are, indeed, of a heterosexual orientation.
And as for the direction of the controversy swirling around like the twister that dropped the house on the Wicked Witch, let us review: According to NPR, five states grant couples same-sex marriages (New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa) and eleven countries do the same (The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, and Argentina). What was most surprising about Argentina, which legalized gay-marriage nationally this year, was that the legalization came from a Latin American country with a heavy Catholic and conservative population. So we had a country that is far more religious, far more traditional in many ways, providing the opportunity for them darn gays to get married.
NOM president Brian Brown was quoted in saying, “This ruling, if allowed to stand, threatens not only Prop 8 in California, but the laws in 45 other states that define marriage as one man and one woman” as reported by CBS news.. Marriage is a contract in this country, in this developed world, a contract that provides individuals with specific benefits and obligations.
We are NOT a theocracy and, in fact, have had (and are having) wars on the basis (supposedly) of the evils of the undemocratic nature and evils a theocratic state is supposed to produce. If we want to say that we deny same-sex couples the right to marry but still have a separation of Church and State, then we must separate the legal benefits of marriage from the religious version of being married. And once we do that, one would simply have to look at the provisions of state-level benefits for marriage in the relatively tiny state of Maryland to find over 1,000 benefits that are denied to non-heterosexual couples.
Yes, we are parting ways with tradition and old ways, but boy, if we hold hands and talk it out, we just might make it out of this in one piece. Honestly, we must ask ourselves how different our pursuit of “not standing idly by” and “spreading the wise word of our beliefs [on this issue]” is different from the religious and moral fanaticism we deem as “fundamentalist” and “terroristic” in populations we fear. The solution is simple—if you don’t like same-sex marriage, don’t get married to a partner who has an identical set of equipment.
by Karla Holland
