Gay Marriage - Feel Free To Comment

My best friend and manager are bi and gay so I do have a more open view on this than I did a couple of years ago when it was only my brother that was out of the closet…. Let’s start with the biggest point…
Happiness, this is one of the best things to living a full and healthy life. It’s the ability to be mentally satisfied with your situation or condition, and feel resolve about your actions. It’s the warm fuzzy feeling that makes you want to drag yourself out of bed and face the day. My manager has this really great boyfriend and he truthfully couldn't be happier with anyone else. They’re involved in a really caring relationship, and of all the couples I know I honestly hope they do get married because they should be together for the rest of their lives and they should be able to tell people that they were married. Their relationship is the kind that gives hope to others that there is a perfect person for you, and that it just takes patience. Why should we tell people to suppress their feelings when it will only make them miserable? Would it be better in the bigot view for suicide numbers to continue to rise just because two men or two women are involved in a relationship that "us straight people" can't understand? This isn’t like waking up in the morning and saying to yourself "hmm, should I be gay today? Or should I go for the whole straight thing?" True love is just something that happens to you, whether you want it to happen or not.
What reasons could the government give for the suppression gay marriage? Well, how about financial cost for the societal whole? The Baptist Press noted that when the Queen of England legalized gay marriage in 2003, the financial costs for private business owners on same sex couples would be about $35 million in U.S. dollars. The cost to the government in 2010 would be an estimated $133 million and in 2050 it would be a whopping $425 million. Since we’re taking into consideration the lowering value of the US dollar and other currency, that doesn’t sound that horrible right? Well consider this… Great Britain has socialized health (US doesn’t) care not to mention that the U.S. economy (even back then) was about seven times larger….
Therefore, legalizing it here would be more expensive, it’s probably a given that taxes would raise and we would have a lot of unhappy taxpayers on our hands. Hold the phone on this argument as well, because if you really think about it do you have to fill out a sexual orientation on insurance forms? No, that would give insurance companies a presumed and present bias. (Which can open up a whole legal can of lawsuit worms.) Business owners must provide equal insurance converge for all their employees (how much depends on the state/company) and most of them already do. Then as Mr. Scott Bidstrup’s research found out, the "extra" money that businesses have to pay to ensure coverage is offset by a business investing gain of approximately 1.5% because they’re seen as progressive… and the American public likes progress as much as the Romans liked conquest.
Wait! This has another bonus for businesses as well, if you’re into financial magazines like I am, you’ll know that Forbes published an article on 04-05-04 that said the wedding industry would reap stupendous profits from gay marriages because there would be hundreds of couples ready and willing to hitch up. This means the caterers, formal apparel sales, party planners, wedding planners, appliance stores, perhaps even jewelry stores would be able to enjoy the booming business… Although it would take a couple of years for it to truly take effect… Here’s the best part, even the beloved churches who would allow these ceremonies would be happy because you do have to pay a fee to use the church and attain the services of the minister (unless things have changed recently to cut that cost… but I doubt it.)
Health care! Oh the horrors of needles and STD’s and all the good stuff of nice terrifying relationships that no one really understands. True there is a larger risk of getting an STD in a homosexual relationship IF (key word there) IF that person has had numerous partners… Do you know what other relationship can run high risks of AIDS or other STD’s? Heterosexual relationships where the guy and/or girl has also shared a sexual experience with numerous partners which is a good reason why you should never fall in love with a "player". Bottom line? Gay or straight, it doesn’t matter, it’s the number of partners that determines the risk of STD’s not the sexual orientation. Use your heads people. Furthermore why should the heterosexual people determine what is and is not okay for a homosexual person to do? It comes down to communication just like in any other relationship. Homosexuals are perfectly capable of walking to a health clinic and getting tested before getting sexually involved with one another. Their doctor can even provide some information on how not to pass their STD to their partner if it turns out they do have one. It is their body and therefore their legal right to enjoy what they want as long as it does not pose a viable threat to those around them. Who ever said that a celibate relationship was a bad one anyway?
Wedding bells are meant for heterosexuals only? The institution of marriage is a sacred right that has been long since heterosexual and should not be tampered with because it’s tradition? Well you know what? Racism and slavery were once traditional practices as well, and we’ve changed those without hurting anyone. In fact it’s actually helping our society out. Denmark has allowed same sex marriage for a number of years now and look, they’re not a bunch of incest ridden, STD mutated, bestial marriage practicing, polygamy embracing, uncontrollable freaks. In fact allowing this has actually reduced suicide rates, spread of STD’s, promiscuity and infidelity among homosexuals. In fact it’s actually benefited society as a whole over there… Now if only we could get all heterosexual relationships on that par we’d be good!
Okay then, let’s look the damaging attack of reproduction. God put Adam and Eve on this earth to reproduce and obviously Adam and Steve or Ally and Eve can’t reproduce. You know what they can do? Adopt from the millions of children who have been cast into orphanages with no parents or home to call their own. If a stipulation must be put on that as well, say the adoption must be from the United States so that those kids can finally have home and hope, both of which have been slowly ripped away by the increasing numbers of international adoption. This would be a step up from child molesters, convicted felons, and murders that are married and ARE allowed to keep their children and raise them. Or better yet look at the couples who are sterile and can’t reproduce. Should we tell them "oh sorry you can’t produce a child so we won’t produce your marriage license."? Or couples that have grown too elderly, or have become sterile thanks to some unlucky accident – should we rip away their marital rights as well because they are now unable to provide us with yet another child that will have be put on health care sometime in the future? That sounds just a smidgen bias to me… what do you think?
As for you who quote the Bible freely as explanation, I’d ask you to remember one fact. Your religion does not make up the entirety of this country, nor should it. There many people who are Buddhist (like me), Pagan, Jewish, etc. Who have different beliefs and do not have a book screaming at them that homosexuality is wrong. Are you going to rip away their religious freedoms just to impose your own bigot consumed views because you’ve taken up a cause? Try developing an argument without religious tones or support and you’ll see that the reasons to ban homosexual marriage are actually quite few and rather shaky at best. Or if you think the Bible should be used as evidence consider the following phrase "separation of church and state". Religious fueled exploits cannot determine legislation, it’s against the constitution… so you if don’t belief in religious equality, how about the rights of the individual, and if you don’t believe in that. Well, it’s time to find a new country because America is founded on this belief. Canada has it’s healthcare and peace, England has it’s monarchs and musical stars, and we dutifully have our rights and celebrated constitution.
As I mentioned before, my brother Angel came out of the closet and yes I did have a hard time coping at first. It’s hard looking at your brother and knowing that he won’t share the idyllic life that you’ve grown accustomed to as the norm. But I couldn’t just disown because I didn’t understand. He’s my adoptive flesh and blood and his happiness is one my greatest concerns. After thinking about his confession I came to one conclusion, there is one thing that overcome all the bias and legislative mistakes of those people who can’t or won’t understand. That’s love. Not the romantic kind that you feel for your other, but unconditional love that surpasses all barriers for your family and friends. Love is being able to look at your brother and say truthfully "I may not understand but you’re my brother, and I’ll always love and support you."
I appreciate my brother’s confession coming first, because when my best friend later confessed she was "bi". It was fine, I realized she was still my best friend, and that wouldn’t change, we can still hang out and check out guys and she can still tell me about all her crushes. I may not understand fully now, and I may never really understand what it’s like to be gay or bi, but I do strongly feel that they’re still people and as such have the very right to be happy and whole. If that means they want to marry someone of the same gender to reach that blissful happiness, I say go for it. No one should be able to legislate what is and is not acceptable to achieving happiness when it won’t hurt anyone in the long run.
In closing, before you judge the homosexual portion of our population, perhaps you should remember it’s not a contagious disease. Nor is it something that can be ‘cured’. It’s a feeling that can be repressed like hate or love, but it’s equally a feeling that should not have to be repressed in name of humanity. Homosexuals are just like Heterosexuals, they’re people with dreams, feelings, and wants and everyone deserves their own happy ending.