Victories for marriage equality
Voters went 4 for 4 Tuesday on same-sex couples. Sadly, Virginia will not soon follow.
Students of U.S.history will mark Nov. 6, 2012, as the date Americans embraced the ideal that romantic love should be respected whether it is shared by opposite-sex or same-sex couples. Regrettably, it will be many years before Virginia turns that corner.
On Tuesday, voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington became the first ever to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote. And Minnesota voters rejected placing a ban in their state constitution, finally quarantining the bigotry contagion that infected Virginia’s and 30 other states’ constitutions.
November 9, 2012 - 6:17 AM
I LOVE that this was from the VOTERS! Thanks!
A great day for equality! Congratulations to the good people of Maine, Maryland, Washington, and Minnesota.
The victories for marriage equality in Maine, Minnesota, Washington, and Maryland tell me one thing: Americans are learning to make better value judgments.
Why is it that Straight couples are encouraged to date, get engaged, marry and build lives together in the context of monogamy and commitment, and that this is a GOOD thing … yet for Gay couples to do exactly the same is somehow a BAD thing? To me this seems like a very poor value judgment.
Ask any Straight couple why they choose to marry. Their answer will not be, “We want to get married so that we can have sex and make babies!” That would be absurd, since couples do not need to marry to make babies, nor is the ability of even desire to make babies a prerequisite for obtaining a marriage license.
No, the reason couples choose to marry is to make a solemn declaration before friends and family members that they wish to make a commitment to one another’s happiness, health, and well-being, to the exclusion of all others. Those friends and family members will subsequently act as a force of encouragement for that couple to hold fast to their vows.
THAT’S what makes marriage a good thing, whether the couple in question is Straight OR Gay. It looks like American voters are starting to accept that.