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| Rainbow flag. Symbol of gay pride. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
By Jeff Stevens
It’s official hillbillies have lost the fight. They are going to have to allow gay people to be classified as people entitled to the same rights as the rest of us. I know, I know. It’s really going to piss off the Tea Party which still hasn’t forgiven the rest of us for the cardinal sin of electing a black guy to the presidency.
http://equalityfederation.salsalabs.com/o/35034/p/salsa/web/common/public/content?content_item_KEY=9072
Whether they like it or not, two of the most backwards groups on earth have come out in favor of gay marriage -Texans and Southern Baptists. A recent poll by Equality Texas (a gay rights group) showed 47.9 percent of Texans, versus 47.5 support gay marriage. A narrow margin to be sure., but bear in mind this is Texas and those two tenths of a percentage point might as well be the Palo Duro Canyon.
But even more shocking, 64 percent of Southern Baptists agree that same sex marriage will become legal. Both polls have the LGBT community seeing rainbows. As for myself, I think it’s a step in the right direction.
What bothers me though is the fact we are even having a debate. This is America after all, land of the free and home of the brave. But the very idea that some members of our society are denied rights readily available to the rest of us indicates we are neither free nor brave. Other nations don’t take us seriously when we try to force our democracy on them, because to them we have no credibility. We say, freedom is for everyone, except this group and that group and this other group.
I say freedom should be for everyone. I say discrimination should be used against no one, well except maybe Republicans. Seriously, the only justification I’ve ever heard for denying gays the same rights as everyone else is the Bible. I also heard God was about love. It’s a message his followers haven’t heard.
Not having the ability to get married, cheats homosexuals out of insurance benefits, tax benefits, inheritance rights and just the human right of truly sharing one’s life with another soul through a lifetime commitment. If your God is against that then maybe you should start interviewing for a new one or you can move. Because the same principles, the same constitution and the same Bill of Rights, that give you the freedom to worship who and how you choose, also guarantee the rest of us the rights to live, worship and love who and how we want.
