Why Should Whom I Marry Affect the Rest of the World?

I have one question: why should you care if I can or cannot get married? I am human, of legal age, in love, and in a healthy relationship. What in all of that should make it so that I cannot get married? I would like to think there is nothing, and so far if you do not know me you would probably agree. However, once I add in the fact that the person I love is another woman, suddenly it becomes a whole different thing. Why? Because people that have never met me and that decide what is best for the country believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman because that is what the bible says. How does allowing a woman to marry another woman or a man marry another man affect politicians? I have never met one, so I cannot see how I could be hurting them if I did. Can you honestly say that I would be hurting you if I were to marry another woman? If I can live with a woman, can have an equivalent to marriage (civil unions and domestic partnerships), and make love to a woman, why should I not be able to legally marry one? There is no real reason at all.

Not everyone believes in God, and not everyone believes that God hates homosexuals, so using the bible as an excuse is exactly that – an excuse. A book which has been interpreted in many different ways and that none of us actually know what the original said should not determine what marriage should mean. There are plenty of marriages out there which are between a man and a woman which are unhealthy, such as ones where there is domestic violence. Surely that is a crime and should be stopped, not someone who loves another person of the same gender. Why should it be a crime or wrong to love another person and wish to marry them? That is all homosexuals are doing – loving another person.

From what I know of God, he is forgiving. Therefore if homosexuals are doing wrong in life by being with a member of the same sex, if they ask for forgiveness on their death bed they will be forgiven of their sins, whilst still managing to live their lives happily. Most homosexuals are hopefully not of the opinion that what they are doing is wrong, but if it makes the rest of the world happy to know that we are doing that then maybe we should. Which makes more sense to do: live a lie and live alone all your life or embrace who you are and live happily? I would sooner please myself than to please someone whom I have never met because they may not agree with me when I say that there is nothing wrong with homosexuals or homosexual relationships. I have to live my life, and no one truly knows what happens after we die, so if God is going to punish me after I die, at least I had a life of happiness and got to spend it with the woman I love.

In the words of Kristin Chenoweth, a Christian who supports gay rights: “God made us all equal. He made me short, he made someone gay, he made someone tall – whatever it is, it’s not a sin; it’s how we’re made. And that’s the way I feel about it. It flies in the face of a lot of what Christians believe, but as I’m finding out there’s a lot of Christian people who think the same as me. So that’s my deal, and I think we should not be careful of the unknown but rather accepting and loving of it.”

You do not all have to agree that homosexuals are in the right or good things, but we are not hurting any of you – those of you that are against gay marriage are hurting us. We cannot do the same things that you can do simply because you fear the unknown and choose to hate on us. There is nothing wrong with changing the definition of marriage from being a bond between a man and a woman to being a bond between two people that love each other. You cannot tell me that that changes the sanctity of marriage as what I do does not hurt you or change your marriage. With all the divorces after months – sometimes only days – which celebrities seem to be having, allowing homosexuals to marry cannot be putting out a worse example of what marriage is. If two people love each other and treat each other right, why should we question that and stop them from marrying if that is what they want to do?

When you look at the facts, if a same-sex couple does not marry in a church, but choose to get married at a registry office, the church has no say in it. Yet with the way the law is, and the reasoning I have heard some of the Politicians here in Australia give, it is because of what the bible says and because of how the church feels. Not the public opinion. It is the opinions of the political parties, and they are listening to the church despite the fact that if a same-sex couple was to marry in a registry office the only people who need to agree with it is the people getting married and the government, not the church. I have heard it said once that same-sex marriage would never become legal because the church was against it. Well last I looked we vote political parties into power, not churches. So can you tell me how it is that the church is ruling this decision and not the government?

Marriage between same-sex couples is legally recognised in Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, and Sweden. It has been legal in the Netherlands since April 2001. As far as I know, none of these countries are burning in hellfire or something equally ridiculous like that. So why is it that countries like America, Australia, and the United Kingdom cannot legalise or recognise it if it is performed elsewhere in all of their states and territories?

To me, we should not call this a battle of if same-sex marriage should be allowed, but if we should allow marriage equality. We are all human, and everyone is going to do something which another person does not agree with, so how does it make any of us different? If we were all exactly the same, that would make the world very boring.