Defending Marriage

Here's a little joke. Two rednecks are sitting on a porch drinking lukewarm Budweiser. The first one says to the other, "Damn fags want to get married! We gotta do sumpin' bout that!" The second one comes back with, "Yer right! We don't do something bout it, they'll be screwin' an havin' fag kids and take over!"

Now putting aside the biologic problems with that whole train of thought, the point of the whole "gay marriage" argument is haplessly wrong. This is something that is going on because gay people can't get the same things that everyone else can. If I get married (again...) anything that I have gets shared with my wife. If I get insurance at work, then under most programs, because I'm married, my wife has an opportunity to get in on that. If I get killed in a car crash, Terri Schiavo notwithstanding, my wife doesn't get left out in the cold, there are "death benefits" that default accrue. If I land in the hospital, she is allowed in to see me, and if needed make the decision to pull the plug, again Terri Schiavo and her loopy family notwithstanding.

That's what the homosexuals want. They want the same things the rest of us want.

Oh my god! That will destroy the sancitity of marriage! Oh, bullshit. What sanctity? Half of the marriages end in divorce (I know, I'm part of that half). Of the ones that don't, figure some portion of those are ones that should. You've got abusers, people who get married for the money, shotgun weddings because those rednecks in the joke don't know how people get pregnant, etc. etc. The sancitity of marriage argument doesn't hold up. Catholics? Hey, if you want to hold up that argument, maybe you should stop hiding the priests who have been screwing kids for no one knows how long. Televangelists who push the point so hard? I've got three names for you, Jimmy Swaggart, and Jim and Tammy Faye Baker. Where was the sanctity of marriage when you were doing really weird shit with hookers Jimmy? And Jim? Was Jessica Hahn even legal when you had her brought up to the hotel?

Letting gay people get married does absolutely nothing to anyone else who is married. It doesn't cheapen what they have. It doesn't change their relationship in any way shape or form. What it does do is let the people who are shut out of hospital rooms in. It lets them get insurance through jobs like everyone else. It is not going to make anyone all of a sudden "turn gay." If anything it may help the national health by creating a more open environment and de-stigmatizing being gay. People who aren't trying to hide that they're gay aren't going nuts that someone might find out anymore and "ruin" them.

The numbers say that people who are happily married live longer, are healthier, and more productive than people who aren't. The only argument I can find that adds up are the people pushing against it want gays to be unhappy, get sick, and die.

Let them get married. Let it mean something to everyone. Why should gays be spared the fun that is divorce?