In the news today there are the results of a poll which indicate the first majority of Californians who support same-sex marriage. While California may permanently sanction same-sex marriage, I doubt that it will be an option here in the South for some time, if ever. Alabama’s constitution still retained a (unenforceable) clause which made interracial marriage illegal until 2000, and the state voted to ban same-sex marriage in 2004 with the Sanctity of Marriage Amendment.
The problem for me is this: how the heck do you tell your friends in same-sex relationships that you aren’t fighting for their right to marry? It makes me feel a bit like a traitor. On the other hand, I can’t help but think that “finally, people with SSA are getting some respect and civil liberties that should have been there all along,”. Maybe it’s a necessary step forward that will finally invite an open dialogue within the Church.
I’m a perrenial advocate of education, and I’ve always thought that the real problem our society has with sex is that we limit the discussion of the subject and inhibit the distribution of information. I see it in the banned book lists that schools turn out each year. I see it in the Church, hear about it in politics. Sadly, then, our kids get all their education from the t.v. They see sex on The Hills or some crappy show on the WB and they think that’s normal. Of course kids should be taught morals, but I also think they should know the facts as well. And that includes knowing that some people experience SSA and that it’s just a nautral part of the human sexual spectrum, and for some that means a vocation to chastity and service. I believe that if people would actually talk about the issue instead of just leaving every person to him/herself, it might be possible to dispel the superstitions about homosexually-oriented persons and then we can all breathe a sigh of relief and be done with it. But I’m an idealist.
I guess we’ve all got to pick our own fights. For now, my position is that I will not support any effort to change the Church’s policy on same-sex marriage nor work to change the law in my own state. I won’t protest, I won’t even bitch about it; there’s other work to be done. But if I get invited to a same-sex wedding ceremony, I’m not going to turn it down, either.
