Well, whenever my countrymen and women want to change our wonderful Constitution and ban gay and lesbian marriages or bring back the death penalty or outlaw abortion I cringe.
I know many people feel very strongly about the above issues - for and against. That is what a democracy is about - our right to be able to differ, for every voice to be heard.
But the Constitution stands above it all, upholding values higher than we are higher than our society and the times we live in; higher than our fears and prejudices or our personal religious convictions.
I saw a bit of this clip on CNN an hour or so ago and I became frightened for the USA should John McCain and the Republicans come to power in October.
Ellen de Generes, who recently announced that she plans to take advantage of the California Supreme Court’s recent gay marriage ruling and wed her longtime girlfriend, actress Portia Rossi, pressed McCain on his stance on gay marriage.
So, have a look and watch John McCain tell Ellen De Generes: "You shouldn't have the right to get married"
3 comments:
I like Ellen a lot, I would love to meet her. I also think Ellen did make a compelling argument.
Here is the problem though as I see it. What Ellen is asking for is for the state to go beyond just declaring legal partnerships and declare gay unions as having the sacred status of “marriage”.
Now this is not to say that there can’t be compelling arguments for why gay unions could not be considered sacred and given the term marriage; I am just not sure that government is really able to mandate any union beyond just it’s legality and declare something “sacred” one way or the other. So perhaps government has over stepped its boundaries by ever declaring any legal union, even heterosexual, a marriage.
Perhaps the answer is for government to get out of the marriage game all together and declare both homosexual and heterosexual unions “civil unions” and let marriage be determined in the context of peoples various religious and cultural communities.
This way everyone would have the same legal rights and at the same time allow diverse communities to determine on their own what would constitute sacred and marriage beyond just a legal agreement and partnership; and no one could deny them that.
Just a thought, I would love to hear your opinion.
Peace,
James
Hi James, thanks for the comment. I think homosexual people really just want equality, whatever form that takes because marriage for them translates to dignity and respect.
If the church and state could ever be separate, well that is another story, but I tend to agree with you.
I think most of us have been brought up knowing and believing that marriage is "right" - good or bad marriage - and marriage is what "normal" people do. It is not surprising that gay people aspire to marriage above just a civil union, even if they aren't particularly religious.
In South Africa same sex marriages are now legal in spite of many churches and plenty of people not particularly liking the idea.
The odd thing, there hasn't really been a rush by the gay and lesbian community to exchange vows. After the initial noise when it was all finalized, nobody even talks about it anymore.
I think your right, and even though I hold to my view of heterosexual marriage as something uniquely sacred, I do want to give all people equality, dignity and respect.
I guess when I think about it, I am not sure government can make any mandate beyond a legal one- so all unions, even mine as far as the government is concerned should just be a civil union.
Let our various, diverse communities attach higher meaning to these things, such as marriage, as they each see fit.
Thank you for sharing about how these things went in South Africa, I think this is a tough thing to navigate but we will not get anywhere until we start to listen to one another.
Peace,
James
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