This is beyond amazing to me.
In two days, this state is going to be voting on whether or not an amendment will be passed prohibiting gay marriage here. Of course it will pass, because this state is rife with people frightened of anything that exists outside of their dogmatic sphere. I know that, and I have come to terms with this fact.
But I was struck with the incredible irony of the entire situation as I watched a piece of the conservative propaganda on television this evening aired under the guise of a "public service message." Their big catch phrase around here and across the country has been, "protect the sanctity of marriage."
Uhm... Excuse me... What!?
I'm sorry, but "sanctity" and "marriage" have been oxymorons for a number of decades now. You cannot call marriage sacrosanct when your country already has a divorce rate greater than 60%. The sanctity of the rite is pretty much shot to hell when you have more people getting divorced than getting married, and anyone who is hypocritical enough to believe that marriage is still perfectly sacred with that fact staring them in the face but believes that it will be destroyed because Jennifer and Joan want to get married are completely blind.
If you want to return sanctity to marriage, I suggest that instead of pushing a particular social group out of eligibility, you push to make it harder to get a divorce or require more effort to become married in the first place. Attempting to restrict two people who love one another from making a formal commitment based upon that love while ignoring the fact that marriage is already treated like a Las Vegas indulgence to be shaken off like a hangover on Monday blatantly spits in the face of the sanctity of the rite. Two people of the same gender who want to get married can do no more damage to marriage than has already been done by a plethora of irresponsible heterosexual couples.
Copyright 2005 S.L. Olson
