I want everyone to understand that I love my hubby John with
everything I have and want everyone to feel free to do so (Maybe not with John,
find your own partner).
When we talk about Marriage we need to be very specific on
what we mean. There are two types of marriage,
1) Holy Marriage: The recognition of a union in the eyes of
a religious community like the one John and I had in 1995 at the First U.U. Church of Reading
(We have the honor of being the first male couple married there.)
2) Civil Marriage: The recognition of the government of a
union in the eyes of the legal and greater society outside of religious
institutions. We had ours at the U.U. Church of Provincetown
in 2004.
Stated clearly as it can be you should be able to have a
Civil Marriage simply by being a member of your country. In the United States of America
we say "all men are created equal" and thus all people gay/ straight
or otherwise should be able to marry.
Things become slightly murkier with Holy Marriage, but If
your religion allows it, marry who you want, however if the dogma of your faith
teaches you that you can only marry the Opposite gender then that's what you
have. Now you can actually have a Civil Marriage if you want but it can't be recognized
by your faith.
There you have it. stated as simply as possible. There is no
right to deny LGBTQ people a Civil Marriage ever, we have protections in our
constitution against that, and if your religion allows it have a Holy Marriage
as well.
But don't you fucking DARE to tell me I can't get legally/Civically
Married just because you or your faith says so. By doing that all you do is
spread ignorance and hatred.
One should remind naysayers that at the ceremony during the declaration[of husband and wife] the clergy says, "..by the power vested in me by the state of ____,I now pronounce you...". That's right, the state,not God, not the church, but the state gives the power to pronounce you married. That is why a judge [or justice of the peace] can marry, too. If it were only the church then they would be the ones to issue marriage licenses and not city hall. Most reasons for be recognized as married are legal reasons, not religious.
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