What is your problem?

Posted 29 May 96

Uncle John has a question for those who would compromise the freedom and diversity of the American culture:

What is your problem? Leave people alone!

The voices of intolerance and fear have risen once again above the ambient noise of everday thought. Those who think they know what "God wants" or what is "best for society" are tromping through the media garbage heap and the source of all things absurd, the US Congress, carrying their greyscale conservative signboards (with small red Nazi icons in the corner) emblazoned with the crest of the Army of Family Values.

The issue is "non-traditional" marriages, but the focus is decidedly homophobic. The issue is easy for heterosexual couples wishing to form legal domestic partnerships. The institution of marriage has been in place since the church first placed its heavy hand upon society. Throughout history, marriage has been used as both a bonding of love between two people (as long as their sexu two people (as long as their sexual organs are complementary, or in a few rare cases, as long as one of the pair of same sex partners could fool everyone into believing differently by suitable application of lies and cross-dressing), and as a means to merge the holdings of two families as sort of a winner-take-all approach to gambling on lifespans of patriarchs. After all, a man who has only daughters can conceivably control additional resources through manipulation by proxy of his lovestricken son-in-law. And if the groom's father yields to the grim reaper first, the father of the lucky lass may have an even greater power, and his decendants may get lucky as well. The above concepts may seem outdated, but they do apply in modern times, on occasion. The real focus of my tirade today has nothing to do with that, but I was on a roll after watching "Braveheart" this weekend.

As I was saying, heterosexual couples do have the option of legal matrimony. It is thankfully no longer a universal requirement for co-habitation, or for sharing property. Laws have been modified to cover the aspect of property division in many states (see "Palimony"). Not that it is accepted by those do-gooders I'm mad at, nooo way! The cohabitation issue is poison to those who wish to force their religion on others, and indeed is a related topic. But the current discussion is on the legal pairing of homosexual couples.

The US Consp>

The US Constitution provides us all with the option to enjoy "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." So why, then do the lawmakers who have sold their collective souls to the devil of the religious right insist upon going against that doctrine based on nothing more than the sexual orientation of individuals? There is no logical legal reason (at least in the purely secular ideal of the American government) why two people can not be legally bound to each other regardless of sexual preference. The tax code is already setup to allow joint filing. Loans can be co-signed, companies can be held by multiple parties, the list goes on. So why then is legal marriage between homosexuals prohibited?

I understand why such pairings could be taboo under the auspices of organized religion, and how the "bond in the eyes of God" could be regulated by the folks who claim to know His beeper number. But marriage in this country is really a two part committment. One part is the blessing by the church of one's choice, and the other by the court. Of course a couple can be married legally ouside the church, by an officer of the court, a ship captain at sea, and just about anyone in the state of Nevada. Can't they? Well, no. Apparently every marriage is controlled by the bible thumpers, because if homosexual marriages are prohibited legally, then the power of religion must extend to these supposedly secular cpposedly secular couplings as well. And this, my dear reader is nothing but wrong.

As free men and women (and other) in this country, we should each be afforded the same rights as all others. I'm not touting socialism here, I'm not suggesting that everyone should be guaranteed anything regarding possession of wealth or quality of life. I'm talking about the right to think and do as we please, including with whom we share sexual intimacy in a mutually agreed upon way. And if that person is constructed similar to ourselves, what does it matter to anyone else? Why must there always be some narrow minded fool, with the word of his God tucked under his arm, pushing and shoving us toward his version of the Light? Worse yet, why is there always some other fool who can think of no other reason for his election to public office other than his subsequent re-election, walking along behind fool #1 collecting the droppings of mental feces and converting it to law?

One of the biggest problems we have in our country is that laws are far more easily made than repealed. After all, if something was a good idea once, then is probably still is, right? So as we cruise into century three of the American saga, and the third millenium of Judeo-Christian rule, we have amassed a huge anchor of legal constraints, with more being added. No longer are laws being made merely to organize society, they are being generated in huge volumested in huge volumes and increasing the restrictions on individuals at an alarming rate. Every special interest group with an agenda and a bank balance is working to mold the entire populace into the ideal they believe is the perfect citizen.

Liberals who choose to blame anything other than the individual are pushing constantly to deprive their fellow citizens of the right to keep and bear arms. In return, they are trying to centralize safety by taxing us to the point of having a cop on our doorstep, to protect us from those unfortunate souls who have been wronged by society and forced into a life of crime. Conservatives are trying to limit our freedom of speech, preventing us from reading or publishing material they consider obscene. Liberals in the form of the current democratic administration are trying to eliminate the availability of electronic privacy. Conservatives are trying to force Christian morality on everyone, regardless of beliefs. Where does it end?

The bottom line is we want to be left alone. Homophobes, bigots, zealots, and all the other radicals are free to live, work and speak their minds. But when they attack other members of our society for thinking or acting or copulating, and do so with the willful backing of those who have been chosen to represent us, then it must be stopped. It seems we never learn. African-Americans, Native-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and so forth have been fightth have been fighting for equal rights for a long time, and each time the battle is the same. Now, a group exists which cuts across those ethnic backgrounds, the Homosexual-Americans, and we now find ourselves in the same arguments. The prevailing theory is that if someone is different, or if we don't understand them, then they should not be afforded the rights we are. Going into the next millenium carrying that baggage is stupid. I don't believe any group of people should be treated differently from all others. That includes so-called "affirmative action" and preferential hiring, or quotas, or any other nonsense. It also includes ignoring race, culture, gender, sexual preference, and any other distinguising factor in the creation of laws, hiring, firing, etc.

People should not be criminalized based on anything but their harm to their fellow man. They should not be hired or fired based on anything other than their skills, knowledge, or abilitites. And they should not be eliminated from the considerations of domestic partnership based on their sexual preference. Just leave us alone!