I don’t know what is wrong with some Americans (oh, wait, I do!). As far as Canadians are concerned, homosexuals are granted the same rights as everyone else, including marriage. Althought not always the case, Canada did take the right step forward. After recently having watched a show on CBC showing a gay woman dying of cancer denied the rights to transfer her twenty six year pension she accumulated with the Ocean County police force to her partner, I realized that the fight is not over. Far from it.
Detective Lieutenant Laurel Hester with her domestic partner Stacie Andree
Now here comes California’s Proposition 8, which was instigated by a number of religious Republicans. This Proposition attempts to dismantle a Supreme Court ruling made last year granting marriage to same-sex couples. Better still, according to CBS’ recent poll, forty-seven percent are in favour versus forty-two percent against. Yet even further, the Republicans that instigated this absurd Proposition claim that if same-sex marriages are allowed to continue, we will be risking ourselves to eternal damnation.
So who is really crazy here? Are the anti-gay Christians all crazy for believing that we will all go to hell for such a massive sin as homosexuality, or are the rest of us crazy because we don’t have direct communication with the divine as they so claim to have? Why is it that they know everything that God wants and demands? Further still, they all seem to believe in the God of the Old Testament, which certainly isn’t an all-loving being, and certainly not a God I want to believe in. So if I die and this is the God that greets me, send me straight down south, because I don’t want to associate with such an evil being.
Now here’s a question I have been pondering over for some time: why would God create homosexuality in the first place? Christians may argue that it wasn’t God, but rather the Devil (if there is one). I flat out refuse to believe that this would be true (if God or the Devil do exist). Gay people are just as righteous as everyone else, and in regards to same-sex marriages and relationships, they have better ones that show more love and devotion than many heterosexual couples. For instance, in many religious families, the female is the homemaker and child-bearer/raiser, and the male brings home the money. In these situations, the female is (in many cases) not treated as an equal to her male counterpart. Mormonism is a great example, especially with polygamy involved. I would rather think that God would rather two people who share complete love and devotion for each other regardless of their sex than two people that don’t simply because they are a man and a woman.
To me, the bible is a great read, with things to take away and learn and others to discard as either outdated or discriminatory. Remember, the bible was written by men, so we cannot take everything word for word in a literal sense. For instance, the bulk of the Old Testament is ridiculously brutal, showing a ruthless God that kills plenty of people, among other things (remember the first born sons that were all slaughtered, or God’s treatment of Job). With this in mind, how can we all assume that homosexuality is wrong, independent of it being in the bible or not? It seems, as I’m sure no one is amazed by this statement, that man uses religious connotations to pursue their own goals. I strongly believe that an all-loving God would not show the same hate for same-sex couples as these men trying to bash it down as sinful.
In the end, Detective Lieutenant Laurel Hester won her appeal after months of trying to convince the freeholders of Ocean County to change their minds and allow the pension to be transferred (as would be the case in a heterosexual situation). Honestly, what a way to spend you final months. The energy spent I’m sure far outweighed the amount she had left. This wasn’t as if she just wanted to transfer her pension to her current partner; she had been with Stacie for over two decades. In a world of seventy percent divorce rates, this should be proof that love can be seen in any partnership, and this should be celebrated, with sex cast aside. The level of support Hester received all the way to the end still gives hope that some day these sorts of issues either won’t be around anymore, or the number of people who create such discriminatory issues will be so small to even rock the boat.
If only we could prosecute the instigation of Proposition 8 as a hate-crime. To me, that is surely what it is.
