"...or forever hold your peace"

The good people of the state of Missouri (or at least a plurality of the people who chose to vote in Tuesday's election) have decided to put an amendment in their state constitution to "protect marriage" by defining it as a union between a man and a woman.

At the same time, a judge in Seattle ruled that Washington's ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional.

Both of the major Presidential candidates are against gay marriage (though Kerry, somewhat reluctantly, endorses the concept of gay civil unions.)

And the possibility of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage as a union between a man and woman continues to be bandied about.

And I have to wonder why so many people are so threatened by the possibility of gay couples getting married. Why would what other people do in their lives and relationships have any impact on their own lives and relationships?

"The sanctity of marriage"? A good number of heterosexual marriages are undermined by abuse and infidelity and half of them end in divorce. Marriage has thrived in the face of these challenges and one has to believe that it will continue to do so even if same sex couples are allowed the right to legally walk down the aisle.

"Stability for the children"? Again, half of marriages dissolve in divorce (sometimes acrimoniously, sometimes not) and a large percentage of children grow up in "broken" homes or blended families (myself, I grew up in a single parent home...hi, Mom!...and I turned out reasonably well...if I do say so myself.)

"The Bible says..."? The Bible also says that death (by stoning no less) is the penalty for adultery...it's easy to tapdance through the scriptures and make a case for anything you want. Using God to justify your own prejudices is, at best, disingenuous...and, at worst, baldly hypocritical and cynically manipulative.

Civilization won't grind to a halt if Martin and George...or Joanna and Karen...are allowed to legally wed and live happily ever after (or at least as happily ever after as any of us can.) If people of sound mind and caring heart want to share their lives with all of the benefits and sanctions of the law more power to them (this old world of ours could use more celebrations of love and life.)

We really should let that whole argument go so that we can once again turn our collective attention back to things which are really important to our society.

Like being outraged and/or...ahem...titillated by Janet Jackson's naked nipple.