Is Gay the new Black?

While home for the Holidays this year, I was mewing about Prop 8 and how un-evolved and sad this measure was. My parents conversely were stating how gay marriage was an abomination... they are both Catholic's you see. They soon launched into why they would always protect the Traditional Values of a Man and a Women vs. any other iteration, i.e. Man to Man, or Woman to Woman. Their first polemic was that marriage was ONLY defined as a union between a Man and a Woman, and that this union was brought about for the purpose of procreation. Their second argument, stated by my dear mother, was based on the premise that gay people are afflicted with a disease ( I know... I was stunned too). The last and most offensive argument was offered up by my step father, and his premise was that if we allow gay people to marry, why wouldn't we allow a Man and a Chicken to marry... no really, he said this. Oh... he is a rabid Rush Limbaugh fan... need I say more.

I then let them them know that all their arguments were ignorant and bigoted (with more venom than was acceptable). My first point to both of them was that they married each other in their 40's without ANY intent of procreation... and that my Grandfather remarried when he as 89 years old... obviously not for the purpose of procreation. Needless to say, neither one of them had a response for this rational. My Mother's contention that homosexuality is a disease was taught to her by the Catholic church, a church btw that believes that you can Pray away the Gay... so logic and reason fall flat here. Their last argument deals with Redefining marriage, and how dangerous that is to Traditional Family Values. If you Redefine Marriage for gay people, " healthy adults will then start to marry barnyard animals". I know...?

So here is my true beef... for my Mother and Step Father to get married (again) in the Catholic church, they had to have their first marriages annulled: " to declare or make legally invalid or void." Meaning: my brothers and I are now bastard children in the eyes of the church and all those that believe the church is infallible. Isn't this Redefining marriage? Isn't this a clever hypocritical twist to what the Catholic church intended with regards to Annulment? Did we not Redefine marriage in 1967 with Loving V. Virginia. Did we not then ban our bigotry with interracial marriage - and in that process Redefine marriage? I am also a fervent believer that this supreme court case was the most appropriate name EVER... Loving. Isn't this whole issue about love? Isn't love the major reason we are put on this planet? And why... WHY do people really even care? Why is another persons happiness a burden to you? How does preventing love from being legally recognized help anyone? And why do people so piously defend an institution with a 50% failure rate? 50% of them have been divorced themselves for God's Sake... including my parents! No one is asking these bigots to fight for this cause, or agree with it, but for God's Sake do not fight against love. If you are truly a God Fearing person, why would you not follow scripture: "Do to others as you would have them do to you." Luke 6:31. What if someone told you that your marriage was no longer legally viable? That you could not visit your spouse in the hospital, that your health benefits are no longer available; that all your rights are now null and void. AND that these rights were taken away from you by people that did not know you, did not care to know you, and have no vested interest in your plight as a human - just an antiquated, ignorant, and bigoted opinion!

Loving V. Virginia banned"Virginia's statutory scheme to prevent marriages between persons solely on the basis of racial classifications held to violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment."

So previous to Loving v. Virginia in 1967, it was ILLEGAL for a black person to marry a white person. And today in 2009, it is illegal for gay people to get married. So sadly... Gay is the new Black... and It breaks my heart!