This started out as a facebook status. I wanted to express my feelings on this issue but then I got on a roll and when it hit the 34,566 character mark I decided to put it here instead.
The past few days, I have found myself in tears over and over again when I think about North Carolina's upcoming vote on Amendment One. Call it pregnancy hormones, call me over emotional, call it whatever you like, but I am so outraged to be living in a State that thinks that it has the right to do what it is attempting.
You might think that I feel this way because I have gay or lesbian family members... but you'd be wrong. You might think that I feel this way because I have gay or lesbian friends... but you would be wrong again. I do have family members (quite a lot of them, actually) that are gay, and I have even more friends that fall under the label 'homosexual'. But I don't feel so strongly about this amendment because of the impact that it would have on their lives. No. Just the thought of nameless and faceless families, couples, children, and individuals that will be impacted by this bill is enough to bring me to tears. Imagining what people that I know, people that I love, already go through and will continue to go through if this bill passes... well, I just can't bear to do that.
There just isn't a reason, not one single solitary reason, why anyone should think that this is okay. You cannot cite your religion as a basis for taking away other people's human rights. This country wasn't founded on Christianity, but on the freedom of religion. And that freedom gives you the right to believe whatever religion you choose. (Yes, choose. Because religion, unlike homosexuality, is a choice.) When you cite your religion or the bible as a reason for voting a certain way you are essentially forcing people to live by rules governed by your faith, not theirs. And that my friends, is wrong. I find it strange that the vast majority of Christians pick and choose what parts of the bible they will live by and what parts they won't. If you are going to use the bible to stand by something then don't you have to equally stand by everything else in the same book? The hypocrisy that this breeds casts a shadow over religion. Yes, Christians are the majority in this country right now. But does that mean that they should get to decide on something that doesn't effect them? I say that it doesn't effect them because not one single person has been able to tell me what it is that the Christian world is so afraid of. Do they think that if gay marriage were to become legal (which won't happen right now regardless of the Amendment) that suddenly everyone will decide to be gay and go marry a same-sex person? I don't understand. I'm straight, married, and have children and I don't understand how my gay neighbor's relationship (or my straight neighbor's relationship, or my old neighbor's relationship, or my young neighbor's relationship...) has any impact on my marriage or my family. Actually, that's not true. It does effect my family. If gay marriage were to be come legal in NC I will sleep better at night knowing that my children will grow up in a slightly more peaceful and tolerant world.
Think about this for a moment... If one day another religion (or a lack thereof) became the majority in America, would you want that group of people deciding the intimate details of your life based on their faith? Or on their morals and the thought that EVERYONE should have the same rights?
This wasn't meant to spark a debate (religious or otherwise) but I feel that Amendment One and religion have become too intertwined to discuss one and not the other.
These are just my thoughts and the reasoning on why I will be voting against Amendment One on May 8th.
Go Alex!
ReplyDeleteI think it is a good reminder of how the government is suppose to work by admendments and such like this one being voted on. We are suppose to be a majority rules country with everyone being given a chance to say how they want things done and then voting to see if it goes through or not. So this is someones idea and we SHOULD vote on it if we want our opinions heard and expressed in government.
I agree vote NO. It's horrible! And it does bother me that someone would want this to pass enough to even try and spend so much time creating it and working out the details. But it is part of our country's main policies to give everyone a chance to put their ideas out there.
Even very bad ideas. Which I hope drastically fail. But even if there turns out to be more people in the state who vote for it, atleast we put in safety nets in our government and can always admend the amendment when their children grow up hopefully not as much of a douch bag as their parents. I really don't have much faith in North Carolina's local population. The state is known as being one of the most racisit, narrow minded, states left.