Gay Marriage: Cali Gets Two Snaps Up (With a Twist and a Kiss)

Maybe I'm writing this because you guys had so much fun bashing me when I wrote about gay hate crimes in Jamaica.

Well, if you think that was wild, you're really going to soak your pink shorts when you hear that California has overturned a ban on gay marriage, which clears a path to make the state the second in the nation after Massachusetts to legalize marital unions between the same sex. ...

Now, despite all the rhetoric that I know will come as a result of this, and the two sides of the argument that has been debating back and forth pretty much most of our lives on the issue, and the leagues of religious leaders that will, at the very least, balk at the very notion, this really is a human rights issue whose time has come.

Martin Luther King once said "an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere." What he meant by that is that all people should have the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as the Bill of Rights states. During his day, gay marriage might not have been an issue, but gay people still felt it applied to them. Evidence of that is King's association with Bayard Rustin, King's openly gay friend and comrade in the Civil RIghts movement.

King's late widow, Corretta Scott King, was herself a supporter of the rights of gays and lesbians to marry. In fact she felt that since people who don't live the traditional way have families, then their families should be able to live the same way as other citizens.

Now, despite the religious doctrines, "values," and perspectives held dearly by many, denying gay people the right to marry is essentially precedent for denying a woman the right to an abortion, blacks the right to live where they want to live, sexual assault and abuse victims the right to seek justice, and even victims of police brutality the right to seek recourse.

Why? Because human rights are what this all boils down to. Government has no right to tell people what they can and can't do with their lives. The same people who constantly cry against "big government" should be the main ones supporting gay marriage because it exemplifies freedom from government interference in people's lives. Instead they hypocritically use it for their own political motives, masking it as a "moral cause." Get real!

For the record: government should only sanction and recognize civil unions between whomever wants to enter one, despite their gender, as long as it is between two consenting adults. Marriage itself should be a matter that is decided by individuals and/or whatever religious or cultural institution they belong to. Matrimony should not, under any circumstance, fall under the jurisdiction of the state.

GOVERNMENT SHOULD NEVER, EVER HAVE MORE RIGHTS THAN PEOPLE. PERIOD.

I hope that California leads the way for the rest of the country to actually get into the 21st century and with the rest of the civilized world when it comes to this issue. There are far, far more pressing things to worry about than two homosexuals deciding they want to have the same damn marital drama in their lives as the rest of us.

Our Lens Sept. 1

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US President Barack Obama takes out his daughters Malia (R) and Sasha (2nd L) and niece Suhaila Ng (L) to shop in the Alleys general store on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, on August 30, 2009.

Jewel Samad, AFP/ Getty Images

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