On Equality

The Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee is set to vote on bill number HB5015, the Marriage Equality Bill, next Tuesday. This bill needs to be voted on in the affirmative so that citizens of this country, a country founded on the ideal that all men are created equal, can experience the equality denied them for so long. There are many same-sex couples in this state that would like to take advantage of this right because they love each other, but they can’t, I would like to see this changed.

According to Steve Ahlquist, writing in RI Future.org, several anti-equality groups attended a hearing on HB5015 last week. They included a group formed by Christopher Grant of NOM-RI (National Organization for Marriage) who joined The Faith Alliance to Preserve the Sanctity of Marriage as Established by God. Also in attendance, joining with the above was Brian Camenker, head of MassAlliance (a Southern Poverty Law Center certified hate group). There is a video clip that goes with this article in which you see those against and for the bill. A boy testifies about his family, he has two moms and two dads. He speaks of the love he feels in his family and hopes that one day we will look back in disbelief at the discrimination that occurred during this time. I hope so.

Many of those opposed to marriage equality do so on religious grounds, they say God says it is wrong. They preach that it is wrong to let two people of the same sex marry because it belittles the sanctity of the institution. This religious sanctity has no place in the law, we do not mix religion and politics in this country, at least we are not supposed to. They also say this sanctity has been present since the beginning of time in the church. This is wrong. The Catholic Church really only got involved in marriage issues during the Middle Ages, sometime around the 12th century. Until then, and even after, it was a legal or business contract, no sanctity there. Now we allow marriage for love. That is a tradition worth extending to all people who wish it.

I would like to see the bill pass and thus allow those same-sex couples wishing to marry to be able to. The law only does what’s right and removes barriers that should never have been there in the first place. We allow interracial couples to marry now, when once this was forbidden. Our country is great, but we have not always obeyed the ideals we were founded on. This we have been correcting. Shouldn’t we correct this mistake as well?