No One Ever Died For My Sins in Hell As Far As I Can Tell

Last night I finally sat down to watch the HBO documentary Outrage. I was interested in watching it and have had it recorded since early October, but for some reason, it was just one of those things that I never seemed to get myself to do. However, I must say I am very happy I finally did.

It's a documentary about secretly gay politicians and their anti-gay voting records. It brings up many issues in American politics that seem to be representative of the nation as a whole. We are a country where you are condemned for being a racist (although many still exist) and yet it is still within bounds to hate gay people. It's something that I just can't seem to wrap my mind around and it made me, again, reflect on my feelings about gay marriage in particular.

I bring up gay marriage because it focuses on a more particular problem than just whether or not one believes it is okay to be gay; its a human rights issue. People say that if you allow men to marry men or women to marry women, where will it end? Will people be able to marry their animals? The same thing was said a few decades ago about blacks marrying whites, and it would be ridiculous for someone today to say that is not okay.


In my mind, what does it matter if gay people get married? You can argue all day long that marriage is sacred, but how does it affect your marriage if gay people get married? The two shouldn't be related. I could never say that I don't think two stupid people, or ugly people can get married because I think it takes away from the sanctity of mine. In the documentary, Gov. Bill Crist of Florida, who has been accused of being gay, said that he believes marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman. A sacred union just like his parents had, or like he and his wife had, before they got divorced. That statement honestly made me laugh out loud. How could no one realize the ignorance of that statement? The union so holy that he scrapped his six months after it started, but gay people would ruin the sanctity.

I just feel that our laws should provide equal rights for all, regardless of religion, intelligence, race, or sexual preference. Somehow, sexual orientation has seemingly become the last frontier in human rights. I don't believe anyone should have the right to vote on how other people choose to live their lives when those choices affect no one but themselves. This shouldn't be an argument on whether you support their lifestyle or not, yet it is. This should be about human rights and how far the law can go into an individual's life. Unfortunately, this is a perfect representation of what American politics have come to across the board. It's all about who is more honorable, holy, and righteous. Those are the people who know well enough to decide what is best for everyone. The superior powers that be say being gay is wrong, so the law must follow what they believe. What it comes down to is religion taking over our politics in the way they are specifically not supposed to. You can't base laws on a religion that not everyone agrees on or follows, but any ban on gay marriage is doing just that.

Looking back over the past few decades, gay rights have come a long way. The slanderous remarks made against gays by people like Anita Bryant in the 70s would never be tolerated today. However, Outrage was just a reminder of how far they still have to go.