Love Wins

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decided on a vote of 5 to 4 to legalize gay marriage in all 50 states.

Amid the celebrations by supporters of gay marriage, the inevitable comments about this marking the downfall of America and about how disturbing it is to see the rainbow flag of the gay rights movement, began to appear. Some of the myriad of Republican presidential candidates immediately began to call for a constitutional amendment to overturn the decision and pass a constitutional amendment to give the right to decide the legality of gat ay marriage to the states.

Frankly, I just don't get all the fuss about gay marriage. I am not gay, and I am not currently married. But that makes no difference. My gay friend married his partner of 20 years just before California's Proposition 8 (which made gay marriage illegal in that state) passed. I was honored to be a witness at their civil ceremony. They are still together. I was happy for them. Their marriage has not impacted my life in the least. He is one of the kindest, most generous people I know. He isn't gay by choice. As he once said, "Why would anybody choose to be something that causes other people to hate them and discriminate against them?"

I get that some people oppose gay marriage or abortion or birth control or whatever on religious grounds. I respect their opinions even if I disagree with them. But they have no right to force their religious beliefs on me or anyone else. They should respect my position and my right to hold it. Today's SCOTUS decision doesn't give gays any rights that we as straight people don't already have. It isn't encouraging the gay lifestyle or corrupting our children. It simply states that gay people now have the same right to marry the person they love that straight people have. 

People need to spend more time worrying about their own lives rather than being offended by others' lifestyles. 'Live and let live' is my motto. Unless a person's actions cause physical harm to another person, property or animal, each of us should be free to live our lives as we wish.