COLUMN: Homosexual marriage is going to happen
In modern United States history, it seems as though almost every generation has another struggle to determine human rights and what should and should not be socially and politically acceptable. Three generations ago it was about women’s suffrage, two generations ago it was World War II and Japanese internment camps and last generation it was about equal rights and equality, no matter what sex or race you were. For our generation, it is about homosexual marriage.
According to freedomtomarry.org, 14 states in the union have accepted same-sex marriages. This is a huge step forward as far as truly having an equal society. All this has happened in the past 20 years, starting with Massachusetts in 1993. Since then, states over the lower 48 have accepted this as well – granted, mostly on the West Coast and New England, where progressive ideas have always had a strong hold.
In Utah, anti-gay people pushed through an amendment to the Utah constitution in 2004 prohibiting same-sex marriage. This is a shortsighted – and I feel – heavily religion-motivated action.
When Utah first joined the union, there were multiple political groups and parties promoting a wide variety of agendas and ideas. Since then, Utah grew to become a Republican state full of shortsighted religious ideological people who believe government and religion should go hand in hand.
If indeed we are all “God’s children,” why is it that different children have different rights? If indeed we are all created equally, why is it that a man and a woman can marry in any state and yet two consenting people from the same sex can only be legally married in 14 states? This seems contradictory and against treating others how you wish to be treated.
I support same-sex marriage as performed by the state and federal government. Everyone above a consenting age should have the right to marry a person of a different or of the same gender.
However, I do believe churches should also retain the right to marry who they please, so a couple of the same gender who wish to get married can be married by the state and any church that will agree to marry them, but churches can refuse to perform a marriage in a temple, church or provide a preacher to perform the marriage. This, I feel, would solve the current problem.
Although I am not homosexual or bisexual myself, I do support the right for people to get married where and to whomever they like, of consenting age.
Human beings within our nation’s history have fought for equality, and this is just another development of the same problem that persists within the consciousness of American citizens. I believe this is due in part to the lack of knowledge about this topic and realizing that allowing same-sex marriage is not going to bring down our society.
This propaganda is just BS brought on by the folks who oppose a certain idea due to lack of knowledge and narrow-mindedness. The government today has said multiple times that the government shutdown would be detrimental to the nation. However, within most lives, it has barely had an effect at all. People will continue to put out propaganda trying to destroy the idea that they are opposed to. This may be constitutional, but it is still narrow-minded.
Wake up and smell the roses, Utah. A human being is a human being regardless of their sex, skin color or whether or not they are attracted to the same gender or different gender. Therefore, all human beings within our state and nation should have the same rights and privileges.
– Taylor Underwood is a sophomore double majoring in cultural anthropology and western history. He is currently publishing a study on the board game subculture at USU. Send any comments to tunderwoodUW21@gmail.com.