The Naysayers regarding the Right to Marry

Yesterday was a joyous one for the gay community (June 26, 2015), but it was a troubling day for humanity as a whole.  

We come into this world a bundle of unknowns; the labels  "heterosexual" and "homosexual” are added sometime around puberty.  We don't go to Wal Mart and buy them for ourselves; they are "bestowed" upon us by a supposedly "all-wise" society, many of whom believe that such divisions really matter.

Yesterday, five members of the U S Supreme Court said that all people are equal, and entitled unequivocally to the privileges provided under our form of government.  

Marriage began as a consensual ritual formed centuries ago to set certain couples apart from others.  Over time it has gathered an abundance of legal and personal privileges.  Marriage has, and continues, to symbolize commitment between two individuals who love each other and who want to spend their lives together.  Just because marriage has traditionally been between men and woman, does not mean that it cannot include same sex couples.  

Marriage was “closed” by the courts and the Congress only recently, but  historical habit must not prohibit change and adaptation.

As regards the Bible--Jesus welcomed all to his table, without caveat, and yet most of the bias against gay marriage is religiously based.

A "belief system" is just that, something one believes.  Beliefs are not set in stone; they evolve and change over time.  Once there was a place the Roman Catholic Church called Limbo, an amorphous realm situated between Heaven and Hell where residents waited to be called to one side or the other.  Now, it does not exist at all.

I am a person first.  Do not label me.  Do not tell me I am less (or more) than you.  Do not assume that just because you do not like me or my lifestyle that you have the right to deny me the same choices you enjoy every day.

What is equality?  What is justice?  What does the phase "liberty and justice for all," mean?

Our country was founded on the above ideals.  Our founding fathers were centered on a vision of a better world.  They had no idea how that vision would play out over the centuries. They set up their ideals boldly, but those ideals had one shortsighted pitfall....they began with what those same men could comfortably negotiate.  Only landowning men could vote.  Slavery remained in place.  Though the dream of equality burned brightly, they were ill-prepared to afford it to all.

The U S Supreme Court justices who voted in favor of marriage for all understand that "government of the people" is a fine, noble ideal, but they also realize that no government can neglect minority rights while it waits for the majority to change their hearts and minds.

Equality has been "urged along" throughout our history; it has been urged along because people suffer when it is not.  This momentum has been acted out through legal statute often accompanied by public protest, and sadly, violence: The Emancipation Proclamation, the Black vote, the Women's vote, biracial marriage, and now, gay marriage.  

Equality cannot be parceled out when one is happy, amenable, or religiously or emotionally ready.  Equality is the foundation of America.  It is supposedly why our soldiers go to other countries to fight and die.  We hold America high and say, "be like us.  Free!!! 

By our actions will they know us, not by our words.

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Historic U S Supreme Court Rulings

On June 25, 2015, the U S Supreme Court ruled in favor of Affordable Care Act subsidies that provide less able individuals with the resources necessary to purchase health insurance at a price closer to what they can afford.

On June 26, 2015, the U S Supreme Court said that liberty and justice for all is a sacred right that can be denied to no U S citizen.  

Though these historic decisions were not unanimous, they are non-the-less law.  

Today, those with limited resources have access to health care.  The naysayers in Congress would dearly love to gut the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and replace it with something better.  They have yet to define or even propose an alternative.  The ACA is not perfect.  The mandate to purchase insurance is an onerous one that punishes those with the least resources.  It does not address economic inequality in our country. It is a band aid over an enormous problem whose woes are old and profound and have nothing at all to do with health care.  Nonetheless, the ACA is a stepping stone, just like Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" was a stepping stone at a time when anything more would have been nearly impossible.

That being said, the second Supreme Court ruling named above is a giant step for liberty and equality in a nation that still grapples with those words and their deepest meanings.

Today, same sex couples may apply for and receive marriage licenses in all 50 states. Detractors say the federal government has over-stepped its bounds and entered into areas best decided by the people of each state.

But those of us who know prejudice, those of us who have been asked to wait until the majority "see the light" know better.  When the world understands that the majority have no right to withhold liberty, equality and justice from the minority for any reason, then our world will truly have progressed beyond the shadows of ignorant and hurtful darkness into the light of fraternity, compassion, and love.