Twenty-five years ago while I was watching Donahue on TV, there
was a group of gay men on the show, saying they wished they could get married.
I laughed and made fun of them. In 1989, the question of gay marriage seemed
inconceivable. Such an idea seemed to have come from outer space. Nothing like
that would ever happen in America, I thought.
Nowadays, I respect the rights of LGBT
people. Like most Americans, I've gradually come around to that view.
I remember in the '90s
reading something in Newsweek about a Virginia judge taking a 3-year-old child
away from a woman because she lived with a lesbian partner and giving custody
to the little girl's grandmother. Today, being a parent, I look at such a gross
violation of parental rights as horrific. I'm ashamed to admit this, but when I
first read the article, I thought it was a good thing.
Now, it's obvious that gays are just as
capable of being good parents as straight people. It doesn't matter if a kid
has two parents of the same gender. All that matters is that the child is loved
and cared for.
It's become increasingly easier for me to
defend LGBT people over the years as I've seen prejudice, violence and hatred
waged against them. It pains me to hear about gay and lesbian teens getting
disowned by their parents and bullied mercilessly by their peers. The worst
thing is the stories of kids taking their own lives.
I've been put off by the hostile anti-gay rhetoric
coming from "family values" politicians and sanctimonious religious
leaders over the years. When the people of my home state, Kansas, voted on a
state constitutional ban on same sex marriage, I was one of the few to vote
against it. I believe a constitutional amendment should expand freedom, not
restrict it.
Now that state ban is standing on shakier
constitutional ground every day. Right-wingers stubbornly defend legalized
discrimination, but they've already lost the war. Same sex marriage is going to
be legal in Kansas and all over the United States eventually. Ted Cruz and all
these other gasbags railing against it are going to look stupid in 40 years.
They object to same sex marriage because
they feel homosexuality is sinful in the eyes of God. They can believe that,
they have freedom of religion. But that argument is legally invalid. For good
historical reasons, we have separation of church and state in this country.
Yes, I once thought gay marriage was an
outlandish concept. I've had to think about it since then, however, and today
I'm able to see things from their perspective. If gays want to marry they
should have that right.
