Today was a big day for the Supreme Court. They were hearing arguments for and against Prop 8 to decide whether or not it is constitutional. Tomorrow they will argue the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. Basically they are hearing arguments in favor of and in opposition to marriage equality. I am not going to give you a lesson on the Supreme Court or how it all works (because even though I had My Wonderful Husband - who is a Political Science professor - explain it all to me, I am not an expert and if you want to know more about the details, you can look it up). I am just going to share my thoughts about this subject so my kids will know where I stand - as always this blog is for them. I stand firmly on the side of Marriage Equality. I believe that two people who love each other should have the same right to marry each other and benefit from the protections that the law provides any other two people who want to marry each other. I believe that a marriage is a partnership between any two people who love and respect one another and want to spend their life together as a couple or as a family with children. Those two people can be a man and woman but they can just as well be a woman and a woman or a man and man. Now here's the part that I want my children to understand. We live in a world where people can be incredibly intolerant, close minded, small, and hypocritical. Because of that not everyone will be accepting of the differences in people. They will try to tell people that they must be just like them. Maybe you have already experienced this in some capacity in your lives. Maybe you know someone that gets teased because of something that makes them different than someone else. I hope that when you have experienced this, you have felt in your heart that it was wrong. Trust your heart - it is wrong. People are all different and that is exactly what makes everyone special. What a boring world it would be if everyone was exactly the same. We need to not only be tolerant of those differences, we need to celebrate them. We need to see past them as well - to the heart of each person we meet. I hope that as the three of you make your way through this world, you open your minds and your hearts to the diversity around you, stay strong in the face of any intolerance that you might face, and stand up for what, in your heart, you know is right. I wish for the three of you a lifetime of love and happiness, a world where you are free to find the person you love and respect who loves and respects you in return, and the only thing that matters in a marriage is that it is a healthy, happy, loving partnership.
*When there is love in a marriage, there is harmony in the home; when there is harmony in the home, there is contentment in the community; when there is contentment in the community, there is prosperity in the nation; when there is prosperity in the nation, there is peace in the world. - Chinese Proverb*
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