Legislation Regarding The Marriage Of Gay Couples Society Essay

Our founding fathers had a great understanding of the personal liberties and rights that were needed to found a free nation of the people, by the people. With the introduction of the Bill of Rights in 1789 by James Madison presenting guidelines of basic liberties in which they had been deprived under British rule, amendments were made to guarantee equality. These amendments of the living document of the Constitution inspired the great leaders of our country from the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s, to the Gay Rights Movement of our generation and the pursuit of equality in marriage. Homosexuals have been granted almost every right that other U.S. citizens have the benefit of with the exception of the right to marry the one they love. It is our duty as citizens of this proud nation to uphold the principals of the Constitution guaranteeing equality for all regardless of race, gender or religion.

There are only two real arguments in opposition to Gay Marriage, religious conviction and hatred for homosexuals. Our Founding Fathers never aimed for the creation of a Christian Nation, this is a misconception that has been presented over the years by Religious activists in an attempted to rewrite history. However, this suggestion holds no historical merit. Many of our Founding Fathers did practiced Christianity, but so also did many believe in deistic philosophy. Most of our influential Founding Fathers, although they valued the rights of other religionists, held to deism and Freemasonry tenets rather than to Christianity. In fact, many of the American Founding Fathers were Deists, or incorporated Deistic thought, including John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine and George Washington. The Constitution forms a secular document that does not appeal to God, Christianity, Jesus, or any Deity, with the exception of the end of the Constitution where it states "the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven." However the use of the word does not refer to the Lord or God rather to a dating method. The term simply conveys a written English form of the Latin, Anno Domini (AD), which means the year of our Lord.

Along with other misconceptions in our nation's history is the separation of church and state. This phrase has been referred to many times by our Supreme Court and other political figures, however it does not appear in the Constitution. It first appeared written as "wall of separation between church and state" in a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to a religious leader ensuring him that there would be more freedoms to practice faith without the involvement of the government. President John Adams and Congress proclaims Americas government is secular during the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, in Article 11 "As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." The apparent goal of our founding fathers was to create a secular nation in which "a godless person is just as eligible as a godly one", as written in article 6 paragraph 3 of the Constitution, proclaiming inalienable rights to all regardless of race, gender or religion making very clear that this would include homosexuality and gay marriage as an indisputable right covered under the Constitution and the beliefs of equality of our Founding Fathers.

In today's society the Anti-Gay Movement's enthusiasm comes from individuals whom believe that homosexuality is an immoral sin, harms children, spreads disease and promotes pedophilia. Many also believe homosexuality itself is some kind of virus that affects not only individuals but also society at large, all of which are home grown falsities with no factual basis behind it. We have heard this rhetoric many times throughout World and U.S History, from the prosecution of Christians by the Roman Empire to the mass genocide of Jews by Hitler and the Third Reich, to the forced segregation of African Americans in our great country. This was all done in an attempt to oppress a human being based on their race, religion, creed or sexual orientation for the entertainment profit and personal gain of their oppressors. These oppressors have been able to do such horrific acts against man through simple charismatic speech and utilization of religious scripture. Hitler is a great reminder of this, as he promised the people of Germany to restore moral values and greatness back to the people, then not long after he took power one of the first things he did was to impose a ban on homosexual organizations and publications followed by storming places where homosexuals gathered. Quickly moving on to the mass genocide of the Jewish population in Europe, prejudices and bias have always started out with small acts escalading into greater human disasters.

We the people of the United States of America have been on many rocky roads in the development of a greater nation, when less than 50 years ago the majority of our states had a ban on interracial marriages until the Supreme Court struck down all laws banning interracial marriage in 1967. Today most Americans couldn't even imagine such laws, however many of these same Americans believe that they should take the rights away from yet another group preventing them from their right to be recognized and love whomever they choose. It has been made clear through constitutional and legal scholars and any person willing to take the time to read the Constitution of the United States of America and the laws which have been enacted to protect the rights of all. Those who continue to take the words of others at face value without doing their own research will continue on a path of self destruction, only truth and knowledge are needed to prevent prejudice acts against your brothers and sisters of this great nation. The easiest way to solve the problem on passing legislation to legalizing gay marriage is to go back to the statement of Thomas Jefferson, "a wall of separation between church and state". This is necessary in order to preserve fragile religious fundamentals and the rights of others. We can do this working together as one by preserving the word marriage for those religious institutions who wish to keep it holy for it is not the federal government's job to legislate religious doctrine. However it is the government's job to protect the rights of all to include the right of marriage and should pass legislation allowing gay unions, not marriage in recognition for the rights of all to practice their beliefs as they see fit.