I've been drinking since 6 pm, and I'm just going to say something and hopefully I don't get in trouble for it, but I apologize in advance if I do.
I rarely rely on an appeal to emotion in my discussions, but I just wanted to say that the idea of killing two people who love one another -- regardless of whether they are of the same or different sex, race, religious background, whatever -- is absolutely crazy.
I'm an atheist, but I accept the possibility that a god or gods exist. I hold no vehemence towards those who do believe that god(s) exist; I respect their decision to believe so even if from my personal perspective I can't understand why.
What I do know, though, is that my girlfriend means my entire world to me. Now that I'm so close to her, I know that a day that passes by without her is like a day without the life-giving sunlight. I'm not dependent on her, I would survive and maybe find happiness in some forsaken world where she didn't exist, but I'm making an emotional plea to those who doubt the veracity of love between women (or between men).
For those of you who frown on homosexual relationships that have a spouse or someone that fills a part of your life that you didn't know was vacant until that person came along, I understand how you feel about that person. Maybe it's easy to look at a lot of relationships in the world, such as those between teenagers, and to say "That isn't love, these young'uns are just infatuated with one another."
Those of us above our 20's have mostly all had younger friends or family that profess they're in love, but somehow we know better -- having been through the same thing ourselves. "Love" is a powerful word. Some (in my opinion, bright) people enter relationships with the stipulation that the "L" word isn't something that should be used lightly; it's not a word that you should just use at the end of a phone or e-mail conversation because that somehow cheapens it into some catchphrase.
Well, to those that doubt real love is possible between two women (or two men), I implore you to consider otherwise. Sure, there are a lot of homosexuals that just go around having casual sex without any meaning (just as there are heterosexuals that do the same), but our love for one another is just as genuine. My girlfriend and I never use the "L" word unless it's truly meant and comes directly from the deepest, most irrationally emotional part of our hearts.
I love her, and she loves me -- and these aren't cheap token words as are often abused between teenagers. This is real love; if you have a heterosexual spouse that you love, please understand that when we love one another it's just as powerful. It's that one person that you would unquestionably suffer for their wellbeing, you'd take a bullet for them without even thinking, you'd gladly lay down your life so that they may be happy (if it came to that) because they mean so much to you.
Now imagine that some other people told you that they don't approve of your love for your spouse. Imagine that they said it's a cheap love somehow, that it's not real or that it's somehow wrong. Imagine how much that would hurt you. That's how we feel every day.
It's not that public approval is all that we're after. We don't need a piece of paper or a court to tell us that we're committed to one another and that we would like to enter a lifelong contract with one another. Those things are superfluous ultimately.
But in the end, they're still important. We don't ask that people approve of our relationship, we just ask that they don't oppress it. When you (general you) vote for laws and amendments that strip us of our ability to engage in the same legal merits that our heterosexual brethren and sisters enjoy, you are somehow belittling and mocking the love we have for one another. I can't think of anything more harsh. To attempt to legally reign someone in from being with the person that completes them, you're (again, general "you're") essentially kicking them when they're already down.
It's harsh. It's spiteful, even if you have no ill intentions and you think you're just following what you believe your God wants. But free countries are based on the principles of equality for everyone that isn't harming other people, not just equality for those that you agree with.
I really doubt that if you (general you) abstained from voting against gay marriage that Jesus would come down on a cloud of fiery fury. If God, or Jesus, or Allah, or whatever actually exists -- something tells me that they would probably understand that the principles of free countries, the principles of justice, equality, and the persuit of happiness for all people that harm no other people -- are a matter quite separate from whatever religion you may believe in.
You can believe in whatever you want to believe in, but in a free country you have to sometimes protect the freedoms of those that you disagree with as long as they aren't harming you or anyone else.
Homosexual love doesn't harm anyone. I've seen a lot of comparisons to beastiality and pedophilia, such as when people say "If we let homosexuals enter legally recognized social contracts then why shouldn't we also recognize pedophiles and beastiality?" Please understand that the most important difference is in informed consent: homosexuality is between consenting adults who are fully aware and in agreement to their situation, just like with any heterosexual pair that must decide whether or not someone else is right for them or not.
Pedophilia and beastiality inherently consists of nonconsent, either through someone not being of sufficiently developed maturity to make far-reaching decisions such as engaging in intimacy, or because a being is incapable of providing informed consent because they don't possess human-level sentience in order to understand the ramifications of their actions.
For those of you who vote against homosexual equality in terms of civil marriage, have you ever really thought about how the people you oppress feel? I understand that you might believe God or Allah or whoever might disagree with homosexuality in your conception of them, but how is this different from allowing Pagans (or whatever your religion disagrees with) from practicing freely in a country?
If Jesus or Allah or God can forgive you for agreeing with freedom of religion in a country -- even if that god disagrees with something like paganism -- then I'm pretty sure that God will forgive you for agreeing that in a free country, homosexuals should have equal civil rights with heterosexuals. Abstaining from voting against homosexual equality is the same as abstaining from voting against freedom of religion. If you don't think you'd vote against someone's right to worship Pagan gods in order to respect freedom of religion, why would you vote against homosexual rights to enjoy the same civil benefits as heterosexual life partners?
