The United States is in three wars, its economy is stagnant at best, and Americans are struggling with issues like sky-high gas prices, unemployment, and any number of other problems in their day to day lives. Yet, to some, it’s not enough to be distracted and worried by global crises and economic woes, so they invent a new bogeyman: marriage equality. The New York Senate is soon to vote yay or nay on a marriage equality act and to some it is inconceivable that two same-sex individuals who love each other should get married. But why? Well, the reasons run the gamut from selective quoting of the bible to their own insecurities and biases against people that are different from themselves. Some even seem to believe that a same-sex marriage will bring about the end of procreation and even society itself.
The surprising part about this rhetoric is not the novelty of this bigotry, but the fact that these ‘arguments’ are simply re-hashed and shameful slanders from those of our recent history in which African American & White marriages were routinely attacked. In fact, until 1967, some states outlawed interracial marriage. For approximately 300 years, there were laws in the Colonies, and later, the States, that prohibited the union of Whites and Blacks- something we are no doubt ashamed of today. The underlying cause for such opposition to interracial marriage, as well as same-sex marriage, is ignorance and fear, mixed with that ever-present discrimination which has too often yoked our great history of tolerance and liberty. It is time that we speak out for marriage equality and the fulfillment of the American Dream.
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