Strike a blow for common sense

Marriage is love.

“There’s been a tremendous discussion recently in this country about gay marriage, and I’m a little concerned — are they going to make us marry gay? Cuz... cuz I... I don’t think my wife would like that, you know, if I had to go off and marry a man. But, see, I figure they must be trying to make it mandatory, because otherwise, why would anyone care?”
— Jon Stewart

Personally, I think gay couples should be allowed to marry. If marriage can be endangered at all, it’s not from loving couples who want to solemnize their long-term commitments.

Is the United States collectively ready for this yet? Probably not. There are too many people out there who are freaked out about homosexuality. (Never mind that it’s observed in many other species than human; some people think it’s “unnatural”. Have any of these people ever actually studied nature?)

What we need right now is a position that the country can agree on without becoming rabidly partisan. The best one I’ve heard of is to invoke the basic notion of separation of church and state: because marriage is a religious sacrament to some, and some religions believe that marriage should be only between a man and a woman and others believe that it should be between two people who love each other, regardless of gender, the government should just step back and not get involved. What part of “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” do they not understand?

So if Congress have any sense (I’m not holding my breath), they’ll pass a law that does a string-replace operation of “marriage” with “civil union” (or any more poetic name for it that anyone can come up with) in all governmental documents, let the gay couples pay the marriage penalty to the IRS, and let the religions wrangle over the details. Naturally, the religions that think homosexuality is sinful will complain bitterly that the government isn’t supporting their agenda, but if they don’t like being in a nation founded by Deists, they can pack up and go someplace else. America: love it or leave it.