Bluh Bluh, Gay Marriage, Bluh Bluh Bluh

First off, let me just say, I love women and am definitely very straight.  Also, for the purposes of this image, I love Indian women.  I usually do anyway, but...  Dang.

Padmapriya being ludicrously attractive.

I feel like I'm getting off-track here, it's just...  Wait, what does that subject line say?  Oh right, I'm going off about this whole thing.  As a bit of a preface, I'd like to point out a few things about myself.  I am not a Conservative, I am a Republican.  Fiscally, I am very much lockstep with the GOP, I am a hawk in terms of my views on national security and I am anti illegal immigration and amnesty.  In all honesty, I am probably a social liberal, my views on social policies are best-described as Libertarian.  Actual Liberals and Democrats usually don't like me because I'm not a fan of government intervention, and Conservatives usually hate me because, well, I'm not a fan of government intervention (funny how that works).  Just to get it out of the way, yes, I am completely for giving same-sex couples the right to marry as they so choose and yes, I think it should be a national standard (we'll go into why later).  I am being clear about this right now so as to remove any chance that this might seem like an attempt at "sneaking" my view across.  As a reader, you now exactly where I'm going with this in the end-game, just try to stick with me here.

This is a thorny subject, I know, like so many issues in the political domain, it's become a matter of morality, what is "right".  Many of the arguments for and against this subject are, quite honestly, invalid in the context of law.  While I am absolutely not a legal professional, I know enough as at least a layman to point out some basic fatal flaws with a few of the more common arguments surrounding this issue.  I don't pretend that this blog has sufficient readership for these to matter, but if a few people actually use their heads, then it's done some good (plus it's a good exercise for me).

• It is the right thing to do to allow gays to marry.

Or, conversely:

• It is the wrong thing to do to allow gays to marry (for whatever reason).

These are arguably the most simple, and most common arguments about the issue.  The simple truth is this:  Law and morality are unrelated.  Murder is not illegal because it is wrong, it is illegal because murder is a violation of another person's civil rights (the right to live) on the part of the murderer.  By that logic, it is outright unconstitutional to do anything on the basis of law for the sake of morality.  It is literally against the law to legislate morality.  You might note that there are instances in which we do exactly this, and, as a rule, these instances have some thin veil of constitutionality supporting them, but that still doesn't make it all right to add more on to the "legislated morality" pile.

• Marriage is a Christian institution and homosexuality is wrong in Christianity, hence, gay marriage is wrong.

I don't even know how this argument maintains any traction, to be completely honest.  I mean, I do, but there is a certain incredulity I feel with that understanding.  The First Amendment gets a lot of use and ludicrous beating from time to time, but the text's meaning is fairly easy to apply in the vast majority of instances (I bolded the relevant section of the Amendment; do note that it is the very first item noted in the First Amendment):

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 To me, it follows like this.  If marriage is to be accepted as a purely Christian/religious institution, then the government of the United States should in no way actively make allowances for marriage.  That means no marriage licenses, no tax conditions for married couples, no legal support in the case of wills (living and otherwise), no nothing.  If, however, marriage is a civil right of citizens of the United States and recognized as an institution by one or more religious groups, who cares what these religious groups think of how the United States government views marriage?  In legal context, marriage is not a religious matter and if it is treated as one, then it is a violation of the Constitution.

• The people of California democratically supported Proposition 8, it is not fair to all of those people that a single judge overturned their decision. 

Is the United States of America a democracy?  If you said yes, you're an idiot and didn't pay attention in school.  This country is a Republic.  We elect public officials to make laws, yes, but even the President is elected under the electoral college system and not democratically (I.E. via a plurality of votes).  We elect these officials to create and enact laws with the understanding that they have a greater understanding of American law than does the average American, furthermore, there's a very simple question.  Since when is it a remotely good idea to have the vast majority of people decide the civil rights of a vast minority?  The abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, black civil rights and the legal allowance of unions (when they were a very necessary thing) were not decided democratically.  It is against everything that is arguably American to allow a group of people to determine who does and does not get equal rights simply because they are larger.  This, of course, leads to a more unique argument that appears very intelligent.

• Marriage is not a civil right guaranteed by the Constitution. 

Not explicitly, no, that's completely true, but let's take a look at the Ninth Amendment while remembering that whole jazz about "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness":

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Ok, wow, that's confusing as all hell, let's break that down a bit.  "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights," reads, "The list of specific rights in the Constitution" and, "Shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," reads, "Are not meant to be taken as the only or even most important rights held by the people."  Broken down, we can read it all together, "The list of specific rights in the Constitution are not meant to be taken as the only or even most important rights held by the people."  (Because you needed them meshed into one sentence, I know.)  What this means, of course, is that there are other rights, rights not listed in the Constitution, several of which were added after the Ninth Amendment's addition to the Bill of Rights in 1789.

Arguably, the next question has to be whether or not marriage is a civil right granted to a citizen of the United States.  Personally, I would say yes, two consenting adults have the right to decide to marry one another in a legally-binding agreement that grants them unique rights in relation to one-another (in relation to taxes, shared property, etc.).  If you agree, then you are basically required to consent to the right of same-sex couples to be married by Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which reads as follows (particularly important section bolded):

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Equal protection is a simple and incredibly vital element of American law, it is very simply that all citizens are required, under the Constitution, to be treated equally under the law.  Under the law, no individual is to be allowed special consideration or treatment based on their gender, ethnicity, religion, or any other trait.  Personally, I would consider "sexual orientation" a very notable trait, at least for the individual in question.  Furthermore, I would (and do) consider barring any two people from a group of people a right that is intrinsic to any two people of another group of people a severe violation of the first group's civil rights.

Consider, for instance, the anti-miscegenation laws that persisted in the United States until 1967 which barred people of two different races from marrying or having sexual intercourse.  As, arguably, these laws were primarily directed against blacks, it's fairly easy to say that in the context of the Constitution, the American federal government was calling blacks non-persons (as they did not have the rights of equal protection under the law).  I would hope that, in 2010, we have reached a point in society that we may openly call homosexuals persons.

• Marriage has always been between a man and a woman, it is tradition.

Slavery and misogyny were also tradition before they were outlawed.

• But slavery and misogyny were wrong, marriage between a man and a woman isn't!

Shut up, seriously.

As I've now descended into being silly, you can probably tell I'm done with this (or at least eager to go look at more pictures of hot Indian women).  Obviously, these aren't the only arguments that are just downright wrong, these are simply the ones I hear the most and the ones that bother me the most.  I think what people most forget, most ignore, or perhaps simply most don't know is that the law has very little (if anything) to do with what is "right" for anyone.  Morality is a personal matter and should govern a great deal in your life, it should not, however, govern how we run our nation.