This post is going to be more of an opinion column, or personal blog post of mine.
It cuts me (and so many others I sure) deeply when the church I sacrificed so much for in the first part of my life wants to deny me rights and opportunities for happiness in my future. The LDS Church has filed an amicus brief (friend of the court) with a coalition of other religions asking the US Supreme Court to not approve of same-sex marriage in the US. They argue that such a legalization would destroy the fabric of society, strip freedoms from religions, and impede religious citizens from fully participating in American civil life.
This is all offensive and false. It is only their opinion that families with parents of the same gender are inferior to "traditional families". It is fine to impose this falsity on their own members, but to impose it on all families, whether they have a belief or not, is selfish and hypocritical. Religions already have exceptions from taxes, anti discrimination, and several other things. Yet they want to impose no exceptions to others that don't share their views. They can believe all they want that it is "bad" for society to legalize same-sex marriages. But asking for it to be the law of the land, by vote or by court rule, is exactly what makes many religions bigotry.
Same-sex parents will be around whether the law approves it or not. But these are real families that deserve the same legal protections as other families--from a government blind to discrimination. It's not up to 15 old men in red chairs (Mormon apostles) to decide who in the world is a real family or not. It is up to the individual family itself. That family, "traditional" or "alternative" does not affect any other family but its own by simply existing and being recognized by the government.
It is not a right of a religious person to hold bigoted beliefs in order to conduct their life. It is not infringing on their civil liberties to tell them they can't vote away equal protections and opportunities to others. Is it my right to vote away a couple's ability to adopt because I think children should stay with birth parents? No. I can't vote that away. That is a right and opportunity to happiness that no one can take away. My civil liberties are not diminished by preventing me from voting away what the constitution grants.
There are other groups that have filed in favor of denying same-sex marriage. Lawyers and attorney generals have weighed in. The same AGs that fought for same-sex bans in their own states and lost the appeals. One lawyer said that legalizing same-sex marriage is demeaning to gay men that have married women. How insulting is that? These brain-washed and mentally unstable men have made a choice to deny their feelings and bend to religious and conservative demands. The poor wives have to sit and wonder if their husband is really attracted to them. These couples ruined their own lives. A law providing more opportunity to others is not to blame. If they are unhappy, they can only blame themselves. They didn't marry a woman because that was the only legal option. They married a woman to appease their religious needs and delude themselves that they can ignore who they are to be rewarded in an unknown afterlife.
These religions claim they know what is best and wish to impose those beliefs into the law of the land. This trend is exactly what led to the exodus in Europe to the Americas... to be free of a religiously tyrannical government. It is the american way to believe as you please. But forcing others to believe and life your way is NOT american. The LDS Church and its companions in this quest are anti-american and are themselves, destroying the fabric of our society.
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=34225206
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