I live in Indiana. I have to say today I really became ashamed to be a Hoosier. Today it was announced that the Indiana Government had voted to add a Constitutional amendment that would ban all Gay Marriages and Civil Unions. When this issue was being debated churches from all over the state of Indiana came out in droves to the hearings to have their voices heard. Many citizens including those who are gay, came out as well to. There is nothing in any Constitution,Articles of Confederation, Declaration of Independence, or the Bill of Rights that defines what marriage is or decries Homosexuality. The Constitution of the USA put Separation of Church and State for a reason, and Indiana apparently must be immune from that. The only arguments anyone had against Gay Marriage was religeon based. Let's cut the "God" part of it out, why is Marriage between gay people so bad? Why, because they are morally corrupt or deviant? They don't pay taxes? They are more likely to start up drug cartels or porn rings? They are more apt to beat their spouses or have children they can't care for? They are more likely to divorce? They spread disease?
Okay here are the facts:
1. Most gay relationships are more committed than straight ones. According to national statistics, the divorce rate and infidelity rate and abuse rates are higher among straight oriented individuals than that of gay and trangendered. That is not saying that abuse doesn't happen or infidelity but it's lower. Don't believe me, look at your local papers and see just how many people file for divorce every single day.
2.Gay people are no more apt to be deviant or criminals than straight people are. Sex as long as its consentual between 2 adults is their buisness not mine, yours, or the government. Any kind of sex that isn't the missionary position is considered deviant. In many countries, sex that is performed on non married people is considered deviant and in some places against the law. Sex that involves multiple partners(for those of you out there that aren't in a committed relationship) is considered indecent and deviant. Sex that involves "toys" is considered deviant. Maturbation is considered deviant. If a person looks at Playboy/Girl or girly or guy magazines, they're considered deviant and I bet there are lots of Senators and Reps out there that not only look at these magazines and porn not to mention have wild monkey sex with their signifigant others, are deviant. So what is the big deal with what people do in their bedrooms? What is the big deal? Again, as long as its consentual, who cares? Saying gay people cause disease is ridiculous! Since the dawn of the AIDS epidemic it's been proven that more straight people are at risk than those who are homosexual. So get off that excuse.
3.Many gay people hold jobs and pay taxes just like straight people do. Many of them are judges, doctors, surgeons, in law enforcement, Firemen and women, are overseas right now in our military defending and putting their own lives at risk for us and others, and the list goes on. They pay their tax money to a government who is trying to dictate their right to love and their right to happiness that the Declaration of Indpendence guarentees us all.
4. There are no gay people going to schools waving around their "gay" wands wanting to convert innocent children to a gay lifestyle. Many gay people who have children or have adopted children are excellent parents and their children are no more gay than their parents are straight. They grow up in a loving home and most of them statistic wise are drug free, don't wind up preggers, or dropping out of school. They are just as likely to go to a 4 year college as a child that has been raised in a straight household.
5. What is marriage anyway? It's a legality is all. It is the union between two people that love one another or wish to commit themselves to one another legally. They get tax write offs and get all the same priveledges that married couples get. Is that what is worrying the Indiana GOP, is that they'll have to give out deductions? Or that a gay couple will be in charge of making legal decisions? Are they worried about divorce rates increasing? I mean how worse could it get, I mean we already have high divorce rates already. Some gay people have been together comitted, for over 20 years.
I just think that the Government has enough on their plate without telling people who they can be happy with! Gay people are not going to go away!Many of what I listed happens more among straight people than gay people. England, one of our supernations, has legalized gay marriage and their country hasn't crumbled. The moral fiber hasn't went straight to the dogs and they have just as many churches if not more than the US does. So many countries are getting caught up with the 21st century,so why can't we? It wasn't long ago that a man named Hitler convinced a whole country that Jews were ignorant, were evil, and were the enemy. Hitler orchestrated one of the largest genocides in history next to Rwanda. In early Colonial America, anyone who looked different or didn't pray enough or 100 other petty reasons, was executed for being a witch. Slavery in America lasted over 100 years and blacks were denied Civil Rights until the Civil Rights movement because it was still believed that black people were not entitled because of the color of their skin. They weren't even allowed to vote or their children attend the same school as white children because it was believed that the two races just could not co-exsist together and that black people were not intelligent enough. Tell that one to Oprah Winfrey why don't you. I dare you. So if we've come so far as far as race relations are concerned, why can't we go a bit farther and give Gay people the same rights as we all have? Why is religeon carrying any weight at all in these matters? I see the religeous aspect of the argument but the thing still stands: We have Separation of Church and State and our Fore Fathers knew what they were doing because Religeon had played too much apart in England. To have a country that was built on people having rights and people being able to thrive and a solid government they had to create something unlike that of England and other European countries. So Separation of Church and State was put there for a reason and it's a damn shame that it's not being held up in the state of Indiana.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The 21st Century and We've Still Not Evolved, or Have We?
I live in Indiana and the latest topic for the GOP's of my state is Gay Marriage. It's a topic that's on every state's agenda. For me, I don't see why it is an issue. Take the religeous aspect out of it and what do you have, two people's right to be recognized legally as a married union. Still on the fence? Okay let's go back in history, in the dawn of when the first people came to the New World(America) did you know that it was illegal for an Native American man or woman to marry a white? Did you know that men that took Native American women as wives could only do so after the woman had given birth to a child that was half white and half Native American. Did you know that at the dawn of Slavery, it was illegal for a white man or woman to be married? That lasted until the Civil Right's Movement. Men could impregnate black women and the children that resulted from those unions could not inherit even if the white man included them in a legal will. Why? Blacks as well as Native Americans weren't even considered American back then. Thousands of Native Americans were driven from their lands and put onto reservations because it was deemed somewhere that they didn't have the intelligence to have their own land, they could be a potential danger to society, and alot of other BS reasons. Blacks even after Slavery was abolished were not allowed to vote, were segregated for years, and were treated worse than the Indians. They had only the right to breathe basically and not be owned. Some people listened to all the negative hype and instilled fear and negative propaganda into the minds of society. I dare any of you to tell Oprah Winfrey she's not intelligent enough to vote, own a buisness, or could be threat to society. I double dog dare you.
So what does that have to do with gay people? Alot. We learned that slavery was wrong and that black(African/American) were ridiculously persecuted for their skin and ethincity. Keeping the basic fundamental freedoms that apply to us all from them as well as the Native Americans, was WRONG. It is the same with homosexual and transgendered people. It's the same small mindedness but only this time instead of picking on a race of people, we're going after a person's right to choose who they find happiness with. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights has Separation of Church and State for a reason and using the "God" defense is a violation of that. Homophobia is ruling in this debate with our government and it's sad really, because after everything and all the strides our Country has made in reguards to race relations, our country is still in the dark about homosexuality.
The God defense.
I was raised in a Christian home. Believe me, my grandparents were very religeous and to this day my grandma still reads her Bible. Do I think the Bible is wrong? No, but BUT I remember one verse clearly:"Judge Ye Not Lest Ye Be Judged". The Bible also says, "For a man to lie with another man, it is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord". Now what I have a problem with is the holy Bible is the most relgeous text that has been translated more than any other known text. I believe that back then, people did not know about homosexuality. I mean there was a time when I didn't believe it to be right either. Think back to ancient times of civilization when a lone prophet is translating from a scroll that some other lone prophet had written, and one day this prophet sees something between two men or two women and runs to his Rabbi or High Priest. The High Priest/Rabbi medatates on it and since the 10 commandments are the only known written by God, what if the Rabbi/Priest doesn't wait for his answer from God? What if he just doesn't know the answer anymore than the lone prophet? What if, what if, what if...see where I'm going? I know someone is screaming "Blasphemer", "Godless Hussy", and "SINNER" somewhere at me while they're reading this. It's okay, we all come short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23 and no one has to answer for me but me and thee. So see, it's all good. Back to the thinkology here: My point is back then no one knew anything about what makes a man desire a man or a woman desire a woman. No one knew anything about a man who could not identify with his sexuality or a woman who couldn't understand why she didn't feel like a she. These things were unexplained thus written as sins. Other than scripture, I dont' recall any 10 commandment, Golden Rule, Be-Attitudes, or declaritive against homosexuality or gender identity crisis. Why would I expect there to be? It's not like Perez Hilton was throwing out the gay parades in Jeruseulem.The point is, why should this matter in the processes of Government? Our Fore Fathers knew what they were doing when they made Separation of Church and State because in England too many times politics and religeon went hand in hand and became corrupt. Don't believe me, just look in your history books. It's chock full of it. King Henry the VIII was excommunicated from the Catholic church to form his own Church of England(to which he was the head) so he could grant himself a divorce from his first wife, Katherine. So tell me Henry boy here didn't have the cards on both ends in his favor? Anyone who defied the church of England spent a short stay at the Tower of London and had their head put on a pike...so maybe you wouldn't want to tell me. Our Fore Fathers put in Separation of Church and State to keep a balance and to keep Religeon out of State matters as well as the government out of deciding how a person could worship and pray. Every instance of where Government has let religeon step a foot in there has been disaster. Examples? Of course you knew I would have some.
Salem Witch Trials
Spanish Inquisition
The Holocaust(Which btw brought about a war and one of the largest known genocides in history)
The Christian Crusades
Crucifixions and people put to death in the names of relgeons in Ancient Greece,Rome, and other parts of the world)
The French Revolution-one of the bloodiest
Iran and Iraq
Afganastan
Thirty Years of War
and the list goes on and on.
So why are politicians allowing religeous debates on the subject of gay marriage to be heard to begin with?
The Statistics and Common Sense of Evolution
1.It is being found more and more with research that a person's sexuality and sexual identity is not a lifestyle choice, but rather could be something genetic. Think of it like this-you have a field of all yellow flowers. They're all the same color, same genus-species-and family, and yet out of the thousands of yellow blooms there is one that is white. Now it has the same number of petals, same fragrance, same length of stem, and same leaves but it's white. Other than one small difference it's basically the same. The same can be said about homosexual and transgendered people: they are just different but basically the same as everyone else. They are human, they have the same organs, the same life functions and processes, and are classified as part of the human race. If they are American born, then they are Americans and issued a social security number upon recipt of their births being recorded.
2. No one can catch "Gay". I had a good friend that one time told me, "Nik, why would I ever choose to be gay? I am gay, but I can't change that, if I could I would." I was shocked. My friend is gay and he's never denied it, but he didn't wear a sign on his shirt either. So I asked him what he meant and this is what he told me. "Nikki, every day I have to be told that I'm wrong, I'm disgusting, I'm a pervert, I'm going to burn in hell, and the list goes on. I have to worry about if I go to a bar or even to the store, if someone's going to beat me to death or just blow my brains out because there are so many nuts out there that has no clue what it's like to be me, but hates me without even knowing me. They don't care that I work every day and that I don't hit on straight men. They don't care that I pay taxes or that I've raised my niece on my own. They don't care that I've been in a disease free relationship for x amount of years. Automatically it's decided I'm a sinner, a disease waiting to happen, and I'm out there in the world to prey upon children and every straight man out there. If I go to a gym, they worry if I'm going to check them out in the locker room." I did what most people like me would do and said, "That's crazy, that's not you at all!" and he nodded, "It's not but they don't care. That is how the world or atleast everyone here sees me and I hate it but until things change that's what I have to deal with. Believe me if I could be straight I would." Was he a self hating gay man, no just the opposite. I found with people both men and women I've met throughout the past 20 years that are gay and lesbian that they are proud of who they are but would have never "chosen" to be gay. According to National Geographic, there are over 500 species of animals that mate with or try to with their same sex counterparts. Animals don't have choices, they live by instinct. So do we just anhilate all the animals in that bracket because they're different? We're already anhilating animals by what we're doing to the environment. So for me, it's not a choice that a person makes when it comes to attraction or who they end up with.
3. Men and women of same sex unions have had relationships that last longer than most staright marriages. Why? I don't know, but they are more comitted. Men and women of same sex unions are less promiscious(I know maybe not in the 70s-but then how many straight people weren't promiscious in the late 60's and 70's) than most straight men and women. Men and women who have children but are in a homosexual or lesbian relationship, their children do just as well mentally and physically as children of straight parentage. The rate of children who are parented by homosexual and lesbian parents is low that they end up being homosexual or lesbian. These children also have been proven to not be high risk in schools and in their communities, are least likely to be a burden on society, less likely to become teen mothers and fathers, and are more likely to finish a 4 year college. The rate of drug and alcoholism among these children are less as well. Now does that mean that there aren't bad parents that are homosexual? No, bad parents come from all walks of race,color,creed, and sexual orientation.
Gay and Lesbian people pay taxes just like everyone else. They work jobs, they own buisnesses, and some even serve in our military and in law enforcement and fire departments. They are deserving of the same rights you and I have. They are guarenteed these freedoms over and over by the Declaration of Indpendence, The Bill of Rights, and the Constitution. No where in our legal law does it say "Everyone but Homosexuals are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". I'm not downing religeous freedom or religeon-I'm only saying it has no place in our Government. If you're laying on the operating table, or you're in a burning building, or you're being held at gun point...does it really matter who your doctor/surgeon, fireman or woman, or police man is going home to? It's none of our buisness who a person finds happiness with? Do you really want the government based on religeon, telling people who they can be with? Because if your still on the fence, we're going to go into a direction where we don't want to be and that is a communist or dictatorship. This isn't Nazi Germany, Hussein's Iraq, Bin Laden's Al Quida, or even Henry's England; it's America: Land of the Free, Home of the Brave and we're a super power country that needs to get with the 21st Century and evolve! Marriage is a legal union between two individuals that love one another and want to be recognized as such. It's time to get over the whole "Marriage is only between a man and a woman" because we're finding out through common sense and evolution that no one can control who they fall in love with when it's consenting adults.(I put that there for all the freaks who say, "Well what about children"-seriously people no one is talking about letting pedophiles and twisted inviduals here). So I encourage all of you-do some research. Visit sites like www.glaad.org, and educate yourself on the subject of homosexuality. No matter what your final conclusion is, you should at least know the people that are just asking for what we all have and that is just to be allowed to be happy!
So what does that have to do with gay people? Alot. We learned that slavery was wrong and that black(African/American) were ridiculously persecuted for their skin and ethincity. Keeping the basic fundamental freedoms that apply to us all from them as well as the Native Americans, was WRONG. It is the same with homosexual and transgendered people. It's the same small mindedness but only this time instead of picking on a race of people, we're going after a person's right to choose who they find happiness with. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights has Separation of Church and State for a reason and using the "God" defense is a violation of that. Homophobia is ruling in this debate with our government and it's sad really, because after everything and all the strides our Country has made in reguards to race relations, our country is still in the dark about homosexuality.
The God defense.
I was raised in a Christian home. Believe me, my grandparents were very religeous and to this day my grandma still reads her Bible. Do I think the Bible is wrong? No, but BUT I remember one verse clearly:"Judge Ye Not Lest Ye Be Judged". The Bible also says, "For a man to lie with another man, it is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord". Now what I have a problem with is the holy Bible is the most relgeous text that has been translated more than any other known text. I believe that back then, people did not know about homosexuality. I mean there was a time when I didn't believe it to be right either. Think back to ancient times of civilization when a lone prophet is translating from a scroll that some other lone prophet had written, and one day this prophet sees something between two men or two women and runs to his Rabbi or High Priest. The High Priest/Rabbi medatates on it and since the 10 commandments are the only known written by God, what if the Rabbi/Priest doesn't wait for his answer from God? What if he just doesn't know the answer anymore than the lone prophet? What if, what if, what if...see where I'm going? I know someone is screaming "Blasphemer", "Godless Hussy", and "SINNER" somewhere at me while they're reading this. It's okay, we all come short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23 and no one has to answer for me but me and thee. So see, it's all good. Back to the thinkology here: My point is back then no one knew anything about what makes a man desire a man or a woman desire a woman. No one knew anything about a man who could not identify with his sexuality or a woman who couldn't understand why she didn't feel like a she. These things were unexplained thus written as sins. Other than scripture, I dont' recall any 10 commandment, Golden Rule, Be-Attitudes, or declaritive against homosexuality or gender identity crisis. Why would I expect there to be? It's not like Perez Hilton was throwing out the gay parades in Jeruseulem.The point is, why should this matter in the processes of Government? Our Fore Fathers knew what they were doing when they made Separation of Church and State because in England too many times politics and religeon went hand in hand and became corrupt. Don't believe me, just look in your history books. It's chock full of it. King Henry the VIII was excommunicated from the Catholic church to form his own Church of England(to which he was the head) so he could grant himself a divorce from his first wife, Katherine. So tell me Henry boy here didn't have the cards on both ends in his favor? Anyone who defied the church of England spent a short stay at the Tower of London and had their head put on a pike...so maybe you wouldn't want to tell me. Our Fore Fathers put in Separation of Church and State to keep a balance and to keep Religeon out of State matters as well as the government out of deciding how a person could worship and pray. Every instance of where Government has let religeon step a foot in there has been disaster. Examples? Of course you knew I would have some.
Salem Witch Trials
Spanish Inquisition
The Holocaust(Which btw brought about a war and one of the largest known genocides in history)
The Christian Crusades
Crucifixions and people put to death in the names of relgeons in Ancient Greece,Rome, and other parts of the world)
The French Revolution-one of the bloodiest
Iran and Iraq
Afganastan
Thirty Years of War
and the list goes on and on.
So why are politicians allowing religeous debates on the subject of gay marriage to be heard to begin with?
The Statistics and Common Sense of Evolution
1.It is being found more and more with research that a person's sexuality and sexual identity is not a lifestyle choice, but rather could be something genetic. Think of it like this-you have a field of all yellow flowers. They're all the same color, same genus-species-and family, and yet out of the thousands of yellow blooms there is one that is white. Now it has the same number of petals, same fragrance, same length of stem, and same leaves but it's white. Other than one small difference it's basically the same. The same can be said about homosexual and transgendered people: they are just different but basically the same as everyone else. They are human, they have the same organs, the same life functions and processes, and are classified as part of the human race. If they are American born, then they are Americans and issued a social security number upon recipt of their births being recorded.
2. No one can catch "Gay". I had a good friend that one time told me, "Nik, why would I ever choose to be gay? I am gay, but I can't change that, if I could I would." I was shocked. My friend is gay and he's never denied it, but he didn't wear a sign on his shirt either. So I asked him what he meant and this is what he told me. "Nikki, every day I have to be told that I'm wrong, I'm disgusting, I'm a pervert, I'm going to burn in hell, and the list goes on. I have to worry about if I go to a bar or even to the store, if someone's going to beat me to death or just blow my brains out because there are so many nuts out there that has no clue what it's like to be me, but hates me without even knowing me. They don't care that I work every day and that I don't hit on straight men. They don't care that I pay taxes or that I've raised my niece on my own. They don't care that I've been in a disease free relationship for x amount of years. Automatically it's decided I'm a sinner, a disease waiting to happen, and I'm out there in the world to prey upon children and every straight man out there. If I go to a gym, they worry if I'm going to check them out in the locker room." I did what most people like me would do and said, "That's crazy, that's not you at all!" and he nodded, "It's not but they don't care. That is how the world or atleast everyone here sees me and I hate it but until things change that's what I have to deal with. Believe me if I could be straight I would." Was he a self hating gay man, no just the opposite. I found with people both men and women I've met throughout the past 20 years that are gay and lesbian that they are proud of who they are but would have never "chosen" to be gay. According to National Geographic, there are over 500 species of animals that mate with or try to with their same sex counterparts. Animals don't have choices, they live by instinct. So do we just anhilate all the animals in that bracket because they're different? We're already anhilating animals by what we're doing to the environment. So for me, it's not a choice that a person makes when it comes to attraction or who they end up with.
3. Men and women of same sex unions have had relationships that last longer than most staright marriages. Why? I don't know, but they are more comitted. Men and women of same sex unions are less promiscious(I know maybe not in the 70s-but then how many straight people weren't promiscious in the late 60's and 70's) than most straight men and women. Men and women who have children but are in a homosexual or lesbian relationship, their children do just as well mentally and physically as children of straight parentage. The rate of children who are parented by homosexual and lesbian parents is low that they end up being homosexual or lesbian. These children also have been proven to not be high risk in schools and in their communities, are least likely to be a burden on society, less likely to become teen mothers and fathers, and are more likely to finish a 4 year college. The rate of drug and alcoholism among these children are less as well. Now does that mean that there aren't bad parents that are homosexual? No, bad parents come from all walks of race,color,creed, and sexual orientation.
Gay and Lesbian people pay taxes just like everyone else. They work jobs, they own buisnesses, and some even serve in our military and in law enforcement and fire departments. They are deserving of the same rights you and I have. They are guarenteed these freedoms over and over by the Declaration of Indpendence, The Bill of Rights, and the Constitution. No where in our legal law does it say "Everyone but Homosexuals are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". I'm not downing religeous freedom or religeon-I'm only saying it has no place in our Government. If you're laying on the operating table, or you're in a burning building, or you're being held at gun point...does it really matter who your doctor/surgeon, fireman or woman, or police man is going home to? It's none of our buisness who a person finds happiness with? Do you really want the government based on religeon, telling people who they can be with? Because if your still on the fence, we're going to go into a direction where we don't want to be and that is a communist or dictatorship. This isn't Nazi Germany, Hussein's Iraq, Bin Laden's Al Quida, or even Henry's England; it's America: Land of the Free, Home of the Brave and we're a super power country that needs to get with the 21st Century and evolve! Marriage is a legal union between two individuals that love one another and want to be recognized as such. It's time to get over the whole "Marriage is only between a man and a woman" because we're finding out through common sense and evolution that no one can control who they fall in love with when it's consenting adults.(I put that there for all the freaks who say, "Well what about children"-seriously people no one is talking about letting pedophiles and twisted inviduals here). So I encourage all of you-do some research. Visit sites like www.glaad.org, and educate yourself on the subject of homosexuality. No matter what your final conclusion is, you should at least know the people that are just asking for what we all have and that is just to be allowed to be happy!
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