When are we going to start to realize the value of one another?
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered right; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:25-37
The freedom to love is a basic human right.
We need to be able to give and receive love to survive. It is time to stand up for our neighbors. This idea transcends marriage equality. If we see rights being withheld from anyone we need to make our voices heard.
“When everyone else is more comfortable remaining voiceless
Rather than fighting for humans that have had their rights stolen
I might not be the same, but that’s not important
No freedom till we’re equal, damn right I support it.” -Macklemore
I love that you just used scripture as the argument for marriage equality. Amen and amen.
Marriage is a legal and governmental benefits issue, not a human rights one. Marriage does not equal love. I can love my friends and my neighbors and my family members and anybody I choose without being required to put a governmental stamp of approval on those relationships.
Marriage licenses are not about the government running around issuing “love certificates” to determine who we can love, spend our lives with, be committed to, or have sexual relations with. The government could care less who we love!
The government’s involvement in marriage is nothing more than a widespread incentive program to promote the healthy producing and raising of children, which is an economical issue, hence the government’s rightful interest in promoting (and attaching benefits to) a relationship that naturally results in child production and ideal (both parent) raising. It is not FAIR or EQUAL that single people can’t get marriage benefits, or that a group of ten men can’t get those benefits. It’s not supposed to be fair! Life is not “fair” in that everybody gets the same thing, nor should it be.
When “marriage” becomes nothing more than a pointless “love certificate” obtained by any two people (or eventually, great groups of people: 5, 10, 100 people “marrying” each other, why not? If we’re not talking about biology, 2 is an extremely arbitrary and UNFAIR number) then the government’s involvement in marriage will cease to have purpose, as they run around issuing meaningless “love certificates” trying to appease the masses, the “benefits” previously attached to it will likewise disappear from existence as they will no longer serve any purpose. After all, when everybody’s special, no one is, right?
As someone who has witnessed true repression through your charity work, you should be able to understand that homosexuals in this country are not by any means “repressed”. Not being able to get government benefits reserved for a specific subset of people (who are statistically likely to perform a specific economically beneficial task: child rearing) is not repression. Homosexuals are wealthier on average, have an enormous amount of political influence (especially considering their small numbers, estimated at perhaps 1-3% of the population, yet their political influence stretches far). Homosexuals are far from repressed.
Be loving, kind, and compassionate to all people regardless of sexual behavior? Of course. Advocate for policy changes that hold no logical ground, and in the end will end up doing away with the entire governmental program and benefits they were seeking in the first place? No.
Plenty of heterosexual couples get married knowing they never plan to have children or physically cannot get pregnant. Not to mention there are benefits for married couples that have nothing to do with having children. Besides many homosexual couples choose to open their homes to children through adoption and surrogacy. Every family is different, but all families deserve the same treatment under the law.
And what about those babes who were born not in families but left in shelters and orphanages. Could not the argument be made that the homosexual couples will be performing a “specific economically beneficial task: child rearing.” They will take those children into their homes and hearts and raise them, thus giving them meaning. These alleged love certificates you speak of will enable them to better be able to rear children born without homes.
Well said.
Lmao! I get more benefits as a single mother than I EVER got when I was married. There is actually a marriage penalty for tax payers. Your argument is ill informed and invalid.
To me it’s just common sense. Equal rights for all! All my gay friends have children. All my gay friends are raising those children with long term committed partners. They are performing the same daily tasks as I am. They are contributing economically to their communities, to their government and to society. They are all raising their children to be strong, kind, accepting, loving, thoughtfu,l happy children. They are no different than you and their relationships are not different than yours. They deserve to have the same rights from their relationships with their significant others that I get from my spouse and you get from yours: health insurance, survivor benefits, dental insurance, medical decision making abilities, marriage & divorce rights, tax benefits etc. All things you and I can get from our spouses. When one subset of people are denied the rights of the majority that is called discrimination. You may chose to put on rose colored glasses and say it’s ok because they can’t procreate without assistance, but many heterosexual couples can’t procreate without assistance. Heck, I’ve got 3 frozen embryo’s stored in a safe little freezer in Savannah. Yet, I get to reap the benefit from this incentive program and the gay couple whose embryo’s are stored next to mine do not. What’s just or fair about that? It’s called Discrimination and it is wrong!
Jamie, I love that picture of your sons! I think it is my favorite so far! It quietly screams love <3