Let me make one thing clear: being gay is not wrong. It is not unnatural. It isn’t immoral or gross or something that should provoke disgust. What is wrong, what is unnatural, what is immoral and what is gross is intolerance and discrimination against fellow human beings for their sexual orientation and active pursuit of preventing loving and committed homosexual couples from legally being married.
I believe in God, and I identify as a Christian, and this identity as a Christian has provided me with the insight to know that people who oppose gay marriage based on “religious reasons” are just making excuses for their homophobia. The idea that homosexuality is sinful is a farce. The Bible never actually condemns homosexuality. You know what the Bible does condemn?
Winking. “He who winks is plotting perversity.” Proverbs 16:30
Rounded haircuts. “Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.” Leviticus 19:17
Tattoos. “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you.” Leviticus 19:28
It is unacceptable that some modern Americans think it’s alright to toss rules like these aside and yet still vehemently oppose marriage rights for homosexual couples.
As a Christian, I’ve been taught to love my neighbor. Somehow, active public discrimination against homosexuals and barring fellow human beings from marriage rights does not seem very loving or neighborly to me.
Homosexuality isn’t a disease: it’s an innate way of being.
Nobody is going to “catch” gay.
Nobody is going to be “cured” of their homosexuality.
Sexual orientation is personal and affects nobody but the individual and is absolutely not the business of anybody but the individual.
The fact that people continue to suggest otherwise and perpetuate this idea that homosexuality is wrong and attempting to make outcasts of people who identify as gay is unbelievably disgusting and frightening and old-fashioned.
It’s 2012, and we should have come much further than this by now.
This matters. This is an issue that, if left unfixed, tacitly permits discrimination and harassment.
The prevalence of anti-gay messages encourages bullying and hate crimes, and there are literally confused, hurt, frightened young people who actually kill themselves over issues like this — and yet people still insist upon calling homosexuality a sin.
The cruelty and hypocrisy is infuriating and unacceptable.
It needs to stop.
The greatest victory in Tuesday night’s election was not only the fantastic fact that same-sex marriage was legalized by popular vote for the first time but the fact that it happened in two states on the same night.
This unprecedented move toward equality was an unbelievably inspiring display of humanity.
Now we have to make sure we keep moving forward. According to the National Council of State Legislatures, Maryland and Maine make nine states to have legalized same sex marriage with thirty states still legally defining marriage as between a man and a woman. We need to change that.
Marriage equality needs to extend to all 50 states and while the progress our nation made on Tuesday night was thrilling, it was not enough.
Until marriage equality is legal in all fifty states, I hope Americans will have the courage to end hatred and homophobia.
It may very well save lives.
Sarah Moesta is a junior majoring in English and is a Daily Collegian columnist. Email her at smm5793@psu.edu
