Freedom is the romantically vague ideal upon which our great nation was built. Cheap ethnic labor too, but mainly freedom. However, there is a large segment of our population that has been repeatedly denied a seat at the table of liberty (where, I imagine, one would eat nothing but Freedom Fries doused in American Cheese). These people are not criminals. They are not terrorists. They are not anarchists, deviants, or Kardashians. These people are gay.
Like, super gay. Gay gay. So gay, in fact, that some of them want to be able to marry another gay person. That's double the gay!
This poses a problem for certain people. Mike Huckabee, Mitch McConnell, an inappropriately chatty woman standing in line behind me at Albertson's, staunch racists looking for more things to hate, Westboro Baptist Church. The creme de la creme of society. According to these paragons of virtue one is to believe that the legalization of same sex marriage would lead to the disintegration of America's moral fibers. The same fibers that allow for unarmed black men to be shot to death and multi-billion dollar corporations to pay no taxes, mind you. These people are also quick to claim that disagreeing with their intolerance is a form of intolerance itself. Intolerance judo.
That's not how intolerance works. You can't just I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I yourself out of an argument. If my stance is that your views on same sex marriage are both antiquated and oppressive, then my stance serves as a rebuttal of your worldview and is not a form of intolerance itself. In more blunt terms, if one believes there is something wrong with two people of the same sex getting married, then there is something wrong with said individual.
Another argument that doesn't pass the sniff test is the notion of gay marriage altering straight marriage. Do you know what has happened to heterosexual married couples in the 37 states that have already legalized same sex marriage? Fucking nothing! Surprise! What was supposed to happen when gay people started getting married? Glitter sales go through the roof, making it impossible to properly decorate for a tacky business meet-and-greet? Do some truly wish to deny same sex marriage for the express purpose of keeping the price of glitter reasonable? Isn't there enough glitter in the world for us all to be fabulous?
An equally baffling off shoot of this line of thinking is faux-protective parents, hands on hips and brows furrowed, who are unsure of what to tell their ever inquisitive children when asked why Bill and Tom are holding hands. Here's what you can tell your crayon-eating kid: literally anything. You're confused on what to tell a child about gay marriage? These little shits are a few years removed from jingling keys being a legitimate magic trick. Elementary-aged children don't bat an eye when you tell them a fat immortal white guy stationed in the middle of the Artic is both monitoring their behavior and making Playstation 4s year round. How hard would it be to say "Bill and Tom love each other?"
I do not pretend to know nor care of any legal voodoo that correctly justifies a state's right to ban gay marriage. I am not arguing from the point of view of a lawyer but the point of view of a human, and my human senses are screaming bullshit.
Currently there are 19 countries which allow same-sex marriage, one of those countries being South Africa. Let that sink in for a bit. A country that is only a temporal stone throw away from apartheid collectively decided that two women in love deserve the same rights and dignity as a man and woman in love. South Africa, a country who's institutional racism made 1960s Alabama blush, has the wherewithal to understand that there is nothing inherently abhorrent about same sex marriage. For whatever reason we have yet to reach such a state of enlightenment. America is losing the moral arms race to fucking South Africa.
The silver lining to all this nonsense is that the gay moon is high and the tides are changing. As I put pen to paper there are multiple cases across the country that will decide the fates of gay men and gay women for years to come. More states are legalizing gay marriage each year, public opinion is shifting from cautious indifference to outright support of equal rights, politicians are coming to a consensus that all citizens are entitled to the quiet comfort of sharing a name and a bed with the one they love, and glitter sales are at an all time high. In the end, as it usually does, love will win out. If we are to consider America a beacon of justice and enemy to the wicked, it must win out.
