There is supposedly a separation of church and government in the Unites States of America. This may not seem important when discussing gay rights and equality--which I plan on discussing--but I'd like to start out by stating that Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to the Danbury Baptist's Association in 1802, the wall of separation letter, and it means a lot of things to a lot of people. To me, it means that the government does not have the right to control one's personal life. It means that the government has the right to respond to the people's needs without their biased opinions. The government should not be interfering with the people's needs because of their own beliefs. It is a known fact that gay marriage, or rather civil unions, do not offer the same benefits as a heterosexual marriage does. In a "normal" marriage, couples have over 1,000 federal rights, responsibilities, and protections from the federal government. Social security benefits upon the death of a spouse, exemption from estate taxes when a spouse dies, the right to have a say in life and death matters during hospitalization, and the simple right to have your marriage acknowledged as what it is: a marriage are among a few. A civil union, however, does not grant these rights. It provides legal protection to couples on a state level, but not on a federal level. Therefore, homosexual couples aren't really recognized as a married couple so when they have to do simple tasks such as filling out forms, their often misrepresented. I'm a firm believer of equality of all kinds, and I truly believe that it's time that same sex marriages get the same benefits that a heterosexual marriage does.


To begin with, there have been many essays, protests, and arguments over whether or not gay people should have the right to marry. Some government officials believe that marriage should be traditional, and that's okay because that is their opinion. Other people, people like me, feel like gays should be granted the right to marry and should have the benefits of a married life, and that's also okay because that is our opinion. I believe that everyone gets so wrapped up in the fact that gay marriage isn't "traditional" that we forget that there are two people, two normal human beings in love, waiting for their chance to be recognized by the government so that they can spend the rest of their lives together, just as a heterosexual couple does. As a Christian, I know that I'm in the minority on this particular subject matter, but I feel like it's wrong to ostracize people because of who they love. Love does not choose genders. You can not choose to love someone simply because they are the same or opposite sex as you. Love does not see gender, color, height, weight, etc. The fact that the government does not realize this, and chooses to ostracize couples for this makes them bullies in my eyes. What they're doing is the same thing that a bully does. They pick on you because of your differences. This is no different than a child going to school, and not being able to play with other children because they don't look the same way, talk the same way or even act the same way. This is no different than a teenager in high school being bullied because s/he doesn't dress the same way as everyone else. The only difference is that when those kids decide to speak up, someone hears them. Someone understands that this behavior isn't right, so they do something about. Some of our government officials are so narrow-minded, that they won't even consider the idea of same sex marriage. We are all entitled to our own opinions, but when you decide to lead a state, or a country, you aren't leading the state or country for yourself. You're leading it for the people who live there.


Secondly, things that the government do and say suggest that homosexuals aren't normal, or don't belong here. For example, the don't ask don't tell rule in the military is bogus. Is it wrong for a gay man or woman to want fight for this country? Will they fight even less because they're gay? Will they hurt someone because of it? Stuff like this makes gay people feel like they aren't normal. When they do stuff like this, when they use terms like normal and traditional, they may or may not realize that they are implying that being gay isn't. I strongly believe that there are people in this world who don't have a choice, and people who would change it if they could. And that is something that I want to prevent. No one should have to live this life feeling like they aren't normal because of other people's opinions or traditions. Speaking of traditions, it was a tradition to lynch African-American people when we weren't considered "normal." So, if we get a government official who isn't quite favorable of African-Americans, should I get my noose ready? The argument that heterosexual marriages are traditional and that it's the way it's always been is a cop out, in my opinion. It means that there are certain people who aren't ready for change when the majority of the world is. It's about time the government got on board.


Finally, as I've stated before, love is love, and no one should feel like a second class citizen or any less of a human being because of who they love. The government needs to push aside their own feelings of the way things should be in this case, and do what's right for the people. It doesn't matter if I agree or disagree with their lifestyle; that doesn't give me the right to dictate their lives. Just because people feel like it's wrong doesn't make them right. It doesn't change the fact that we have people in this world who love each other regardless of what gender they are, and these people deserve to live the life that they were meant to live. I have a question for the government officials who feel like gay people shouldn't have the right to be married: what if it were the other way around? What if it weren't considered normal to be heterosexual. What if you couldn't marry your husband or wife because the homosexual government official didn't feel like it was right? Place yourselves in the other person's shoes, and stop seeing the world as if it were only black and white.


In conclusion, my opinion is that gay people should be allowed to be married. They should have every single benefit that a heterosexual couple gets. There are famines and droughts in East Africa right now, and all we can think about is stopping two people who love each other from getting married. The world would be a better place if we all focused on things that really mattered. Who we love is an important as Justin Bieber's relationship with Selena Gomez. We put so much emphasis on things that don't matter that we lose sight of the things that do. I feel like the government should grant gay people the right to marry, and focus on more important things. We are making issues of things that should have never been a problem in the first place.