Human beings are complex creatures; we feel, we create, we're self-aware. We have built a technological bridge crossing land and ocean connecting everyone on the planet; we have eradicated viruses; we have cut people open, solved a problem then sewn them back up to live their lives; we have made it possible to leave this planet all together and venture to other worlds. In the process, we've forgotten things about the humanity we're trying to protect, the humanity we're attempting to expand.

     The United States of America is a country founded upon the idea of liberation and individuality. As we declared our rights to freedom, to have the power of self government and justice, and the freedom to express ourselves as individuals without persecution, a promise was made to our country's citizens and it should be always remembered and never lost: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

     If our endowed rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, then I would like for anyone who is opposed to same-sex marriage to tell me how anyone can live freely and find happiness in a country who doesn't allow her citizens the right of marriage?


     We live in a country today where we promise all citizens the rights of freedom, individuality, and equality without legal prejudice, yet hypocritically deny these rights to them - in this case, lovers of the same gender. If all humans define love differently, if we are all from varying creeds, homelands, and lineage, and if the United States of America has promised all of it's citizens their unalienable rights, then why does it deny these basic rights to same-sex couples? If the United States of America has a separation of Church and State, then what reason is there not to legally bind its citizens of the same gender? Marriage doesn't have to take place in a church; there doesn't even have to be a formal ceremony. Two people can simply drive to their City Hall and sign a document saying they are joined. I speak from personal account; my parents were not married in a Church, but in the backyard of my mother's home. My parents were not married by a Priest, but by a Justice of the Peace.

     Human beings are complex creatures; our most complicated trait is our ability to love. What separate us from the animals is our compassion, a higher appreciation of life, and our cognitive ability to reason and adapt beyond our emotion and instincts. To know true love, you must respect and be understanding all of its forms, including love that isn't necessarily identical to our own. I'd like to think that love is the universal language, it can expand your mind and bring you closer to humanity, and all the while love can be twisted and wasted on sins such as greed and human division. I've seen love break down walls, and I've seen love break people. Humans have the ability to grow past this persecution of love, this prejudice and live in a more united world, a more united country and overall a more united humanity.

     What human individual has the authority and higher understating to restrict love, to restrict rights based on personal belief? I'd like to think that whomever, or whatever does have that authority and higher understanding would know better than to restrict love in such a way, especially in a country such as our own, a country who promises that we are all equal and share our endowed and unalienable rights. From what I see, the last major person to make such a decision was none other than the dictator, Adolf Hitler. In his eyes, he saw that people of different coloured skin, creed, and with certain characteristics didn't deserve the even right to live. I'd like to clear any misunderstanding that the United States of America kills same-sex couples, but it does try to have the same sort of dictatorship over marriage; in the eyes of politicians, same-sex couples don't deserve the right of marriage.

     Same-sex couples are treated as African Americans were treated during the time before our country's Civil War. They are bullied, not allowed to join in certain organizations; they are denied the rights and benefits of marriage. Just as people of all skin colours are equal, people of all sexualities are equal as well.

     Imagine yourself in a relationship lasting at least ten years. Imagine being with the love of your life, depending on each other, and being able to depend on each other with anything in the whole world. Imagine yourself deeply in love with the one you've completely given yourself to, and shared your lives with. Now, imagine that person is dying. Imagine they are hospital bound; imagine they are unable to make their own medical decisions. Let me ask you a question: Do you think you should have a say in what happens to them? Do you think you're fit to make that decision? In marriage, you are granted that right. You are granted next-to-kin hospital visits and the right to make medical decisions in the event one partner is too ill to be competent. But because same-sex marriage is not legal, couples who have been together for just as long, and loved just as hard as any opposite-sex married couple is denied the right of next-to-kin hospital visits. They are denied the right to adopt children, they are denied the right of joint insurance policies, they are denied divorce protections such as community property and child support, they are denied immigration and residency for partners from other countries, they are denied inheritance in absence of a will. Same-sex couples are denied more than 1,100 benefits of marriage. And on what basis? On the views of politicians, who typically aren't as virtuous as we'd like to think? What reasons, other than any Religiously affiliated answer, can you give me to not give two people of the same-sex the right to be bound to each other?

     The very motive of Pilgrims to come to this once new discovered land as settlers in the first place was to escape religious persecution from their King. We have a forgotten separation of Church and State here; officials let their own belief system impose on the belief systems of their citizens. Our officials represent us – they are the voice of the people. This is the United States of America: land of the free, home of the brave.











_{2011 | brantly iracleanos}